Persona 4: Spiritus Animales
by oRpheusB20
Summary: Re-write of 'Demon Ears'. Yu Narukami goes to watch the Midnight Channel, and is shocked to see himself on the screen. After diving into the TV world and talking to his Shadow, he's later found passed out in the real world by Naoto, who finds he now has dog-like ears. Now he must find out what caused this strange mutation while saving people from horrible TV-related deaths. Joy.
1. The Lonely Boy

**Well, this took a while. So... this intro is going to be long because I have somethings I have to explain. Please read through this. It's somewhat important.**

 **So, this is a re-write of my previous story, Demon Ears. I was getting some reviews for it recently, promoting me to re-read some chapters to remember what the hell they were talking about. What I found was a _complete and utter_ mess of plot holes and grammar errors.**

 **So I'm fixing all that.**

 **So here's what's going to change, at least, everything I can think of...** **I** **f you don't know what I'm talking about because you didn't read the original, then either read some of that, or don't and pretend I never said any of this.**

 _ **The Shadow Selves will normally refer to themselves as 'we' almost as though this is freaking Anthem. They say 'you' if they are directing talking to their person, and then use 'I' to distinguish that though they are one and the same, they are currently two separate entities. You'll see.**_

 _ **The characters will have their animals set from the beginning. So no cat phase.**_

 ** _Most of the Social Link's won't be here. Some of the more humorous moments will be there, but otherwise, no._**

 ** _Any of the OCs that I threw into this story to spice it up will still appear, but I aim to give them some more life._**

* * *

Chapter 1

(Not long after Yu started to settle down in Inaba…)

(Wednesday) (21st)

He was told by that Chie girl to watch what was known as the Midnight Channel. He didn't particularly want to, but something about it intriguing to him, sparked an interest in him that he didn't even know that he had. He promised himself that he would cut off his communications with the two he had met that day after he did so. He didn't want to get attached to them like a lot of people that he had met while he had first started bouncing around because of his parents. It was too painful.

As he stared at the screen of his tiny TV, the sound of rain splattering against the window attached to the side of his room, the clock struck 12. What Yu saw when the blank screen lit up like it was said it would, however, was far from what he had expected.

It was him. Yu stared at the TV him, and it seemed to stare back, even though it was looking at the ground. Yu felt that the other him was staring into his soul, knowing the pain that he had been through. Its eyes were blank, from what Yu could tell, considering his hair hid most of his eyes, although he swore he saw yellow. Dried blood ran down his face, almost like it was because he tried to claw his eyes out, possibly to not have to see something that he didn't want to see. The other him still seemed to have sight however, showing that he had failed his attempt. Yu couldn't help but shiver, frightened.

The other him started to speak, "We're so lonely, but we're too afraid to get close to anyone. We're afraid to make friends. We don't know what we're doing anymore."

Yu gazed at the other him. He didn't like to admit it, but the TV him that somehow knew that about him was correct. He was constantly bounced around because of his parents work, and for some reason, never went to the same school twice. Any friends that he made while there forgot about him in a week, no matter how long he had spent there or how closely they bonded. Eventually, Yu gave up, disconnecting from the people around him, preferring to study, nothing more. As such, he was well ahead of all of the classes he went to, but was now bored as a result because he refused to move to the higher levels because that would be too much of a pain, and refusing to make friends to avoid what he deemed as 'unnecessary' heartache later on.

Yu felt that he was in a rut that was seemingly impossible to get out of. The world was a cold place without friends, but he didn't want to make any, as he would just inevitably lose them later. As he looked at the other's bloodied face, Yu started to feel that it represented it. He didn't want to face a reality where he was friendless, but he continued to push away potential friends. It was like the other's attempt to rid himself of his eyes. He tried to get rid of the need of eyesight (Yu's need for at least one friend), but he didn't have the courage to do so; unconsciously knowing that he would be dying on the inside for the rest of his life if he managed it.

Yu started to want to talk to the TV him, see what had happened to make him so downcast. He reached out to his TV, his palm passing through the cold screen of the TV. Finding that his whole body wouldn't fit, Yu walked downstairs to the larger TV there. He stepped inside without a thought crossing his mind that it was a bad idea.

He would later blame it on him just being tired.

Inside of the TV world that Yu had fallen into, he found himself sitting in a blank space, covered up by a yellowish fog. Standing in front of him was the TV self that he had seen a minute ago upstairs.

"Do you admit it?" The other him asked Yu, staring off into the distance.

It confused him why the other him asked that, and what he meant, so Yu answered, "Excuse me? Do you mean that I'm lonely, but won't do anything about it because that would cause worse pain when I leave? It's kind of hard not to."

"That is indeed what we meant," the other answered. "I am you, representing the things that we don't want to see, or just plain refuse to believe. Call me your 'Shadow', if you will."

"Why did you appear on the TV when I was testing out that Midnight Channel thing?" Yu asked his 'Shadow.'

"That is what the Channel is about really, helping the people realize what is wrong with them. Not that they could ever figure it out," the Shadow chuckled at that. "Accepting us Shadows is always an impressive feat; most people have a hard time facing the things that they hide away. However anyone that can, will almost always be able to turn their situation around. With the powers that you will obtain from this world, and me, you will surely gain friends that will not just simply forget about you like you're nothing more than an unwanted kidney stone."

The Shadow smiled warmly, and then the smile slipped away into a frown. "The thing is that if you cannot accept what the Shadow is telling you, you'll die, it will go into a rampage. I want you to do something for me, Yu Narukami, my other self." Yu looked at his Shadow in confusion. "Accepting your Shadow may be a fine thing to do, but if at all possible, make sure no one else enters this world. Hiding our new powers will be difficult, but something tells me that you don't want to be dragged off to a secret lab far away to be dissected. Nor anyone else."

Yu smiled and laughed. "Of course, and if anyone else does comes inside anyway, I will ensure that their Shadows will not kill them." His Shadow smiled as he looked at Yu, the blood on his face disappearing, as he started floating off the ground. For a second, he transformed into what appeared to be a warrior, with a polearm weapon clutched in his hand. He then turned into a small glowing ball, floating into Yu's chest. Yu then blacked out as a large amount of pain overtook him.

* * *

Naoto had been walking down the street by the river, tired. She had worked past midnight, and was about to fall over. Looking over at the river, she saw something through the developing fog and rain that shocked her. There was a boy lying there, unconscious, something bright shining like a beacon at the top of his head. Her previous lack of energy forgotten, she rushed over, stopping a few feet away, finding glowing dog-like ears onto of his head.

Looking at the teen, she realized that he was Dojima's nephew, who she had seen once while he was out wandering the town before going to his uncle's house for the first time. Pulling out her cell, she called up Dojima at his home. After a bit, he picked up, sounding very annoying as he growled, "What do you want, it's after midnight!"

"I'm sorry, Dojima-san, but are you aware that your nephew is currently lying by the river, with glowing dog-like ears on his head?"

"Who is this?!" Dojima snarled quietly, trying not to wake up his kid. "What kind of prank are you trying to pull?"

"Dojima-san, it's me, Naoto Shirogane." She heard Dojima sighed. "I'm not kidding, your nephew has silver hair, correct?" She heard Dojima suck in breath. "He is lying by the river, and I don't think these ears are fake."

"Alright, keep an eye on him, I'll come see." Dojima said, preparing to hang up.

"Right, also, you might want to beware the fog. It's getting really thick." Dojima sighed and hung up.

Naoto stared at the ears that occasionally twitched while she waited. They were a rainbow of colors with a tie dye pattern. She took a couple steps forward, and cautiously crouched down, fully prepared to jump away if he suddenly got up and tried to strange her. It wasn't likely, but you could never be too careful. Slowly she extended her index finger. She lightly poked one of the glowing 'things' atop Yu's head, and it jerked, startling her, making her back away a little. Mustering her courage, she started lightly pulling at the ear that she had poked. It didn't come off, so it had to be real, attached to his head. Yu's expression turned to one of discomfort at the pulling.

Backing away, Naoto heard a voice call out. "Shirogane, where are you?"

Naoto looking in the direction that the voice had come from, surprised that Dojima had come that fast. "Dojima-san? Over here!" She moved out of the way of the ear's glow, and Dojima was over in a couple seconds, panting.

He gasped as he got a good look at the ears. "Are you sure that these aren't fake or something?"

"I tried to pull them off. Unless he used superglue to ensure that they stayed on his head, which I highly doubt, then they're real alright. Plus, they twitch. That's not normal, last I checked," Naoto answered. "What are we going to do?"

"I guess he'll have to wear a hat at all times, not taking it off unless he is sleeping or alone. No one is to know about this except you, me, and him, alright?" Dojima answered. He held out his hand. "We have to get him back to my house. Give me your hat." Naoto raised an eyebrow, wanting to question the point, but knew that she shouldn't challenge her superior's judgment, so she did so without a complaint.

Luckily they managed to get home without someone seeing them. When they got home, Nanako was standing there, looking at them in confusion. Naoto looked over at Dojima, silently asking whether they should tell her. He shook his head in a 'no.' "Not yet, if they are there in the morning, then we will," he whispered.

"Daddy," Nanako started. "Where did you go? What happened to Yu-kun?" She looked at Naoto. "Who are you?"

"Those questions will be answered tomorrow; more like today, since it is after midnight, now go to sleep." Nanako sighed and returned to her room. "I want to know what you were doing out after midnight, you know," He said, turning to Naoto. Naoto lifted her hat off of Yu's head, placing it back on her own, not responding. "You know, I don't think that you'll be getting home. One way or other you will be coming back, so why don't you stay?" Naoto's expression changed to one of slight shock as Dojima took off his shoes, finally realizing that Yu was in the clothes that he had been wearing upon going to bed that night, lack of shoes included.

He returned Yu to his room, and gave Naoto some blankets as she settled onto the couch. Dojima was asleep on his feet when he returned to his bed, plopping down and drifting away into sleep.

* * *

 **This chapter remained relatively the same, but there wasn't much to change, other than some dialogue and the description of the ears. The other chapters will change more things than this, and will be worth reading much more.**

 **By the way, if you would be so kind, please leave a review or something that tells me what this story should be named. Spirits! doesn't quite cut it.**


	2. The Inside Of A TV

**I've let this sit for almost a month now. I feel as though I should upload the second chapter for you guys, even though that doesn't follow my normal routine of simply going in order of what was last updated.**

 **OH! and I've decided upon the name for this, at Originaljuan92's suggestion, I'm going with _'_ _Spiritus Animales,'_ which, if you think about it, is cheesy, but it does fit.**

 **Also, OMNISENSE95 mentioned that I done fucked up. I never mentioned what Chie and Yosuke saw on the Midnight Channel. It's only a small detail, but apparently it bothers him, so I added in an extra little scene for that.**

* * *

Chapter 2

(The next morning…) (Thursday) (22nd)

Yu woke feeling strangely gleeful, walking downstairs with a smile on his face, though that smile disappeared when he saw Dojima conversing with a girl that he had met a few days ago. They looked at him as he walked down, and frowned.

"Damn it, they're still there," Naoto whispered. "What are we going to tell Nanako-chan?"

"Hey guys, what are you talking about, and Naoto-kun, shouldn't you be preparing for school, not talking to my uncle?" Yu asked. "Why are you here, actually?" He looked at her, confused, noticing that she wasn't wearing her school uniform (which was oddly enough the male uniform, something about not liking the girl uniform), opting rather to go with clothes that he had seen her wear while she was working with the cops.

Naoto sighed. "You and I are going to be taking the day off today. It doesn't matter too much anyway, there is about an hour left by now. Dojima-san is also taking the day off from his work." She took off her hat, throwing it to him. Yu caught it, shooting her a confused look. "Really, you haven't noticed yet?" She questioned, knowing something that he didn't. "Go look in the mirror," she groaned.

Yu rolled his eyes, but humored her demand anyway. When he did look in the mirror, he was shocked, and tugged at the ears that had appeared, seemingly overnight, realizing that they were in fact real. He screamed, probably sounding like a little girl, and quickly put on the hat, rushing out. "That took longer than I thought it would," Dojima said calmly, sipping some coffee. Naoto nodded in agreement.

"Who else knows about this?!" Yu nearly screamed at the two detectives.

"Just us right now, but we're considering informing Nanako-chan about it," Naoto responded with a thoughtful look on her face. "Before you got up, we were talking about getting you out of anything that required you to take off your hat, when we get you your own, of course. You won't be keeping mine."

Nanako entered the house with a frown, finally getting home from school, which ended for her earlier that high school and middle school. "Daddy, you need to answer the questions that I asked yesterday."

Dojima tried to smile and frown at the same time. The result was a completely neutral expression. "Technically, it was after midnight, so it was today," he sighed. "Listen, can you keep a very important secret? No one, not even your closest friend can catch wind of this secret. Can you keep it?" Nanako nodded. "Good, this is very important, I cannot stress that enough. Yu, take off your hat."

Yu looked hesitant to do so, but finally, he removed the hat. Nanako gasped at the ears that popped out, smiling and saying, "They are so cute! Where did you buy them?" Yu leaned over, and asked Nanako to pull at them. Confused, she complied, and found that no matter how hard she pulled, they wouldn't come off, and she stopped after she realized that she was paining Yu. "Nanako-chan, they are real. Like your dad said, no one can know about this, OK? Can you do that for me?"

Nanako smiled, and nodded. "Of course, but on one condition." Yu tensed up. "You need to not wear a hat when you are home, and there aren't guests." Yu smiled and relaxed, he could manage that easily.

"We need to go get you a hat now. Like I said, you aren't keeping mine." Naoto said, getting up, Dojima following. Yu sighed as he walked back upstairs to change. While he was doing so, he screamed again, startling the people downstairs. When he came down, Yu lifted his coat, and showed them that he also had a dog-like tail, the same colors and followed the same pattern that his ears had. The detectives sighed in annoyance. Just what they needed, one more creepy unexplainable thing to try and cover up.

* * *

(At Junes)

The place was starting to fill up because high school had let out by the time they got there. Yu hung back from the rest of the group that he was following, stopping completely and forgetting that he had been walking behind anyone when he looked at the TVs in the electronics section. He unconsciously walked inside, passing by the two he had met the other day, with the boy trying to get the girl to think about getting a large, expensive flat-screen TV, since he worked there as a part-time job. When they saw Yu walk by, Yosuke stopped him, asking what he wanted, saying that Chie was being a stick-in-the-mud about get a new TV, getting kicked in the gut as a result.

Yu ignored them and started to reach for a medium sized flat-screen TV, and Yosuke started to yell at him. "Dude, I know that is a display unit, but don't go getting it covered with fingerprints!" Yu didn't stop reaching forward. "What did I just say, dude?" He asked in annoyance.

Yu's hand disappeared into the TV, shocking the two teens, who started screaming and running around for no apparent reason. Yu ignored them, and continued moving his hand through, until Chie and Yosuke ran into each other, and in turn pushed them all through the TV.

They all fell a couple feet, and hit the ground with a large 'thunking' noise. When Yu got up, he realized that his hat was gone, and he started to run off, not wanting the two to see that he had strange canine ears. Chie grabbed him before he could get anywhere. "OK, smart one, what the hell just happened?" She looked up. "Are those… ears?"

Yu turned around, clasping his hands together and bowing. "Please don't tell anyone, please, can you guys keep it a secret, I don't want anyone who knows already to realize that I walked away and that you saw," he begged the two, both of them staring, dumbfounded at what was going on. They nodded hesitantly, agreeing to not let anyone know about what they were seeing at that moment, though not sure if they were even awake at that moment. "Thank you guys; I don't know why I stuck my hand inside the TV to begin with."

Chie spoke up. "Um, about that, how are we going to get back?" They started to look around. Finding nothing, Chie suddenly thought of something she considered important. "Oh, yeah, Narukami," she said, catching Yu's attention. "Did you watch the Midnight Channel last night like I asked?"

Yu nodded. "What did you see?" He asked.

"I saw a person, I know that," Chie answered. "Admittedly, I was half asleep because I didn't think anything interesting would show up, so by the time I realized what was going on, I didn't get to study it close enough to recognize who it was. What about you, Yosuke?" Chie turned to Yosuke.

To this, Yosuke sheepishly shrugged and said, "I didn't watch. I thought it was a hoax. And now look, you're saying you saw something, Narukami has ears, and we're stuck in a TV. Lovely, just lovely."

Out of the corner of his eye, Yu saw something in the distance coming towards them, seeing farther in the fog that the so-called 'normal' people.

"Don't freak out, but suddenly, we aren't as alone as before," Yu said, pointing in the direction of the incoming thing. The others whipped their heads to where Yu was looking, vaguely seeing something in the fog. They heard a voice calling to them.

"Who are you guys?" A bear costume materialized though the fog, and Yu was sure that he now had more than a tail and ears since the other night. His senses were amazing, and rather supernatural. He could already tell that the bear was empty inside, no one was making the costume move; it was doing so on its own. "What are you doing here, wrecking the peace?" The bear sighed as he looked at Yu. "I already pushed you out once around midnight, why did you come back?"

Everyone stared, shocked at the bear. "I did enter earlier, didn't I?" Yu said, crouching down to be at eye level with the bear. "I'm sorry; I didn't even realize I was entering the TV until it was too late. You said that you let me out? Can you do it again for us; we didn't mean to interrupt the peace of this place. We just kind of fell in."

The bear sighed. "Well, if you didn't mean to… I guess I will, but unless it is really important, then I don't want to see you here ever again."

Yu smiled, "Thank you, um…"

"My name is Teddie!" The bear introduced himself.

"Right well, thank you, Teddie. I'm Yu, Yu Narukami," Yu bowed slightly at the bear, which he returned, looking rather humorous while doing so considering his shape, before dancing a little, with three TVs stacked on top of one another dropping down, seemingly as a result of the dance. All three humans looked up, but couldn't find the source of the magically appearing TVs.

Teddie pointed at the bottom TV. "There you go, there is your exit. Like I said, don't come back unless it is necessary, Yu-kun. That goes for you two as well." He turned to Yosuke and Chie, smiling for a moment, and then glaring dangerously. Yu smiled, and attempted to step into the TV, finding that it was rather small, but eventually he passed through it into the other side, hopefully back into Junes…

* * *

 **Mostly, this only had small changes, but what're you going to do?**

 **Chapter 3, containing the Shadow Yosuke fight, is where things get interesting. There, I gave the Shadow some dialogue, with some nice banter included.**


	3. The Bored Boy

**I managed to fix up Chapter 7 to the point where I'm moving the two days at the end to Chapter 8 but could easily be its own chapter, having damn near 4,000 words. In two days. Most of it came from the 7th. That was... interesting. It was the first storm day. And it is a _very_ stormy week were I live, so I feel that it's perfect to have worked on that then.**

 **Now then, I can't remember if I have any special notes for this chapter. Oh, I did give Shadow Yosuke dialogue, and I think it came out damn good... well... what would be right there?**

* * *

Chapter 3

Back at Junes, Yu stepped onto the tiled floor, and instantly grabbed Naoto's hat, which was conveniently right in front of his feet, placing it back on top of his head before anyone saw him without it. As the last ripples from the TV disappeared upon the others coming out, Naoto walked up, grabbing his wrist and started to drag him away before he could talk to the two about keeping the other world a secret, so instead he shot them a stunned, but stern look that he hoped got his message across. "We are not here to look at TVs, senpai," she told him. Yu apologized, and Naoto stopped dragging him.

About a minute later, they found Dojima and Nanako sitting at the food court. "Geez Yu, you were so quiet the whole trip here, we didn't even notice that you disappeared," Dojima said.

"He was in the electronics section with some other high school students," Naoto informed Dojima. "We should just get you a hat and leave before you cause any trouble."

'It's a little late to be saying that,' Yu thought as they walked towards wherever the hats would be located, Naoto staying next to him, ensuring that he wouldn't wander off again.

Half an hour later, (because Nanako got distracted quite a bit at the different things that Junes had to offer) they had finally found Yu a suitable hat that didn't show any signs of the ears existence. It was, rather conveniently, multi-colored like his ears, only without the tie dye pattern, it was more like a blob, like all of the colors of Skittles after being chewed together. So far no one had noticed the tail that he had either, which he mostly kept wrapped around his waist. Naoto just figured that anyone who did see it mistook it for a colorful furry, and possibly twitching, belt, which Yu was perfectly fine with.

On the way home, Yu got himself a job making origami cranes and translating, telling his uncle that he had a tendency to get bored easily, and would blow right through them. He also picked up a toy model that a man requested that he finish for whatever reason. He saw some books that he wanted as well, but he didn't have any money, and he was told that he would have to pay for that on his own, so he'd 'better get cracking on those jobs.' They ran into a few other people, but none of them gave Yu anything else to do, nor said anything of particular interest.

After getting home, Yu went upstairs to begin on the model like a kid that just got a new toy, and couldn't wait to open it, leaving the others to talk about what to do to get him out of P.E. for the rest of his school years, every other year after he moves again included, provided they never get rid of his new ears. They figured that they would just tell the school's staff that he had contracted a disease that prevented him from physically exerting himself, which it didn't have a name, didn't seem to be contagious, and was only dangerous to him if he was in P.E. They decided that they would tell his parents when the time came. With that decided, Naoto returned home, promising Dojima that tomorrow she would watch out for Yu, and guarantee that he wouldn't remove his hat throughout the day.

* * *

(Friday) (23rd)

The next day went without any problems, though after school the two that had fallen into the TV with Yu dragged him away before he could go home, or talk to anyone that he had intended to talk to, mainly Naoto about getting out of P.E. He had barely managed to make up an excuse that let him out. They took him to the Junes food court, and started talking to him about going back into the TV, to which Yu objected to the idea, repeating Teddie, that it had to be absolutely necessary to return to the other world, but Yosuke forced Yu's hand into the TV anyway and pushed himself through the portal that his hand had created, dragging Yu along, but leaving Chie behind.

Yu growled as he landed in the other world. Ripping off his hat, Yu threw it to the ground in a rage. "I told you, I didn't want to go back unless I had to!" His ears stuck straight up angrily, and his tail did so as well.

Yosuke backed away from him. "OK, I won't want to ever want come back here again, just get rid of the fangs and claws man!"

Yu looked down. His fingernails had grown to long points, and feeling his teeth revealed that they had become that of an animal's, sharp, made to kill. Slowly, his teeth returned to their natural state, however, his nails remained the same length. Yu reasoned that it was ignited by his anger. An animal side of him that he didn't know he had (but probably appeared with the ears and tail) changed him into something that wasn't really human.

"Sorry, I didn't know I could do that." Yu said to Yosuke. "Um, do you have any nail clippers?" Yosuke looked at the claws that had been short a minute ago. Slowly, he pulled out nail clippers in his pocket and handed them to Yu, who accepted them, and started to trim his nails down to length.

"Keep them," Yosuke told him. "If you get angry again, you need to hide any evidence that something like that could happen. I needed new ones anyway."

"Right, now that we have that out of the way, what are we going to tell the bear about why we are here?" Yu asked him. "I don't want to have to talk to him, I have a bad feeling that he will blow up on us."

"Well, to avoid talking to him, let's go see if there are any of those exit TVs lying around. Lead the way, I mean, you can see through the fog better than me, right?" Yu sighed and rolled his eyes, and started walking away.

A minute later, Teddie appeared, sniffing. "Those morons are back," he said to himself. He sniffed again. "Without the girl, heading… that way!" Teddie started running in the direction that the two had wondered off in.

"Walking off and not waiting for the bear has probably doomed us." Yosuke commented, confused, as it seemed that they were now in a twisted version of Inaba's shopping distract.

"It appears that is the case." Yu added, turning around, starting to walk back, Yosuke following, seeming to want to cling to Yu's arm like a child.

Yu stopped after heading a noise. He turned around and saw a black blob. It was moving towards them, in a threatening manner. Yosuke backed away, and Yu took a fighting position. When he did so, a blue energy surrounded him, and a card appeared in front of his face. An unknown voice in his head told him to not fear it, and without realizing it, he automatically crushed the card in his hand. It shattered, accompanied by the sound of breaking glass.

The warrior that his Shadow momentarily transformed into a couple nights ago stood behind Yu, towering over him. The blob stared for a second, before running (slithering, really) away in a fright. Yu knew that letting it live would only cause more problems later, and because he didn't need any more issues to deal with, he nigh-unconsciously ordered the soldier behind him to attack.

In a quick slash, the creature was gone, and the giant warrior turned into a ball, and disappeared into Yu like it had the other day. He heard the unknown voice again, "I am thou. Thou art I. I am the Persona known as Izanagi. I will fight by thou side as long as my assistance is required."

Yosuke said, "Wow," as he approached Yu. "Originally, I thought it would be cool to have ears like that, but now, I'm frightened, and not sure if I want it anymore, if that is the power you get from it."

"So you don't want a giant warrior that will be at your beck and call?" Yu asked, confused as he figured his new friend would love that.

"Hell no!" Yosuke yelled.

A voice from behind them spoke up. "There you are!" They turned around to find Teddie, out of breath somehow, considering he was a costume, and looking very annoyed. "Why are you back here? I don't see any urgency in your movements, so you must have come just to mess with the peace!"

"Listen, Teddie," Yu started, and then he paused for a moment in thought. "It was all Yosuke's fault," he informed the bear, jabbing a thumb in the other teen's direction.

Yosuke looked shocked at Yu's bluntness, and fell to his knees, and dramatically said, "I thought that this world should be looked into, considering it's inside a TV!"

"Stop lying to yourself, you were just bored," a voice said, a second Yosuke with yellow eyes walking out from behind a nearby telephone pole in an overly dramatic fashion.

"It's his Shadow!" Teddie and Yu called out simultaneously, before looking at each other, each wondering how the other knew.

Before a conversion could start about why Yu knew what a Shadow was, Yosuke's started talking. "We're bored of that other world we have to call 'home.' We're too lazy to study, but nothing else interests us! Think about it. A bored, nearly depressed teen with nothing better to do learns of a whole other world, inside a TV, no less! It's a breath of fresh, foggy air!"

"You know, I think you're depressed because of the weather," Yu interjected. "They say that moving from somewhere sunny to somewhere cloudy and rainy all the time will negatively affect a person's mood. You just need more sun."

Yosuke, his shadow, and Teddie all stared at Yu like he was crazy. Which probably he was, considered he decided to point out something as random as the weather affecting his friend's mood at such a critical moment.

"Do you think we care?" Shadow Yosuke asked.

"Not really, but I figured that I should mention it anyway," Yu shrugged.

Shadow Yosuke sighed. "Well, that killed the mood."

"Yes it did," Yu agreed.

"Anyway," Shadow Yosuke sighed, turning back to his other self, deciding to just return to his previous task and forget what just happened. Unfortunately for him, he no longer sounded nearly as interested or threatening. "Inaba bores us. It's worthless and everyone that lives there can go fuck themselves."

"Don't you think that's a bit extreme?" Yu asked, turning to look at Yosuke, who looked like he wanted to strangle his other self for saying such things. 'Huh, so his Shadow's getting under his skin? I wonder why mine was so calm in comparison, then,' he thought. 'Is it my personality?'

"Shut up," Yosuke whispered.

"Oh, what was that?" The Shadow asked.

"I said, shut up!" Yosuke yelled. "Inaba isn't bad! You don't know jack about what I think! The face you wear is nothing but a mask! You don't know anything about me. I don't know why you've decided that you're me, but let me tell you now, you aren't me!"

The Shadow started to laugh and a thick cloud of darkness appeared, covering the Shadow, until it formed something that looked like a camo-frog with half a humanoid figure on top of it, waving around a little. "I am a Shadow, the true self," it spoke. Then, in a lower voice, it said, "That took _way_ too long."

"Yes, it did," Yu replied before preparing for battle while Teddie ran the hell away. He quickly called forth the being that called itself Izanagi, who then launched itself at the Shadow. Shadow Yosuke made a sound that indicated he was annoyed, and called forth numerous smaller Shadows that started to get it the way of Izanagi's progress.

Knowing that he had to step in, which sounded like a pain in the ass because he would have to divided his attention between himself and his warrior, Yu nearly ran into the fray, stopping before he could when he realized that he had no weapon. He gulped, and decided to rely on the strange demon power that had appeared earlier. He closed his eyes, concentrating, Izanagi stopping when he did so. The Persona got smacked around, which unfortunately pained Yu, but he continued to picture the strange powers that he had in his mind. Eventually, Yu felt a surge of energy, and opened his eyes, finding that his nails had grown again, and his teeth were sharp.

He shot forward, ripping his way through the mass of Shadows like an animal, using everything at his disposable (causing a horrible taste in his mouth whenever he bit down on an enemy) as his Persona moved to take down Yosuke's other self. Yu moved like a predator, using all four appendages, figuring that if he was to use the power more, he could get some weapons that would work around the fact that he used all four of his limbs. The fight was over quickly, which Izanagi slashing the demon monster in half while the Shadow stared, presumably scared of the warrior.

After Yu took down the last Shadow that was too stupid to run after the big guy was murdered, he pulled out the nail clippers, calmly walking over to Yosuke, his Shadow, and Teddie, who had returned, while trimming his nails. "Don't do that again Yosuke, I don't want to clip my nails again today."

"Oh, so it's my fault now!?" Yosuke yelled at him.

"Just accept the damn Shadow," Yu replied, focusing on his nails, trying to remember how long they were before entering the TV.

Yosuke sighed and looked at his Shadow. "You were right, I was just bored, nothing more. I'm sorry I said that you aren't me. After all, only I could know that I'm bored out of my mind back in Inaba. I pride myself with my amazing acting."

The Shadow nodded and smiled, like it was saying, 'I accept your apology.' All the while, it rolled its eyes because it knew Yosuke couldn't act. Why he said that really didn't make any sense in the slightest. It then transformed into a strange looking Persona that was more or less the Shadow's battle form, only more humanoid. It changed into a ball a second later, and disappeared into Yosuke's chest, like Yu's did.

Yosuke fell forward, tired. Yu sighed and helped Yosuke as he followed Teddie to where they entered. Teddie called forth the TVs, saying, "If you ever have to enter or exit the TV world, it's best you do it from the same spot. Who knows where you'll end up, otherwise."

"So, if we exit 10 feet to the left, we'll fall out somewhere completely different?" Yu asked.

"More than likely," Teddie answered.

"I'll keep that in mind that," Yu said while nonchalantly shoving Yosuke headfirst through the bottom TV. After Yosuke was gone, he shoved himself through, saying, "Have a good day, Teddie."

In response, Teddie waved happily and said in a menacing tone, "Don't you dare come back here without reason, or else I will rip off your legs, and stick them on your head." While saying this, he had a cute, innocent look on his face that made Yu shiver involuntarily. "Don't forget your hat," Teddie told him before he could escape, holding it up with that same innocent smile. Yu grabbed the hat and placed it on his head, not replying as he hightailed it out of there.

Back in Junes, Yu turned to Chie, who apparently sat there, blankly staring at the TV the whole time they were gone. Now, she was staring, confused, at the unconscious Yosuke in front of her. "Sorry about that," Yu said. "We're back now." He looked down at Yosuke. "So, what should we do about him?"

Chie sighed and said, "Don't worry about it. This is a somewhat common occurrence, considering he's so clumsy and stupid. I'll take him home."

Yu nodded. "Thanks, you have fun with that. Have a good day." With that out of the way, he left, going home.


	4. The Insecure Girl

**I'm uploading this earlier than I originally intended (I kinda wanted to upload this on Christmas as a nice little present for y'all) due to the fact that I'm not sure what I'm going to be doing on Christmas, and tomorrow I'm going to be hanging with my mother all day at her store, where there isn't internet that I can just hack into. (Not that I commonly hack into people's internet, mind you.)**

 **So, someone under Guest (real creative title there) mentioned that this story is readable this time around. And I have to tell you guys, it means a lot to know that. Remember that this is (was, since this is a rewrite) my first story, so to know that my writing has apparently progressed far enough for someone to say that it's now readable the second time around is unbelievable. Also, where's the inconsistency? I don't see it.**

 **By the way, 4,000 or so words is the new average I'll be aiming for. After all, if it's going to be readable, it should have so sort of substance, especially with the lack of Social Links.**

* * *

Chapter 4

After arriving home, Yu removed his shoes and hat. Nanako greeted him happily as she set up dinner; making Yu realized just how later he had been out. That night Dojima couldn't come home for dinner, only arriving a couple hours afterwards. Yu went upstairs after Dojima returned, working on his translating job for about 45 minutes, and spending another 30 on the model. By the time he was done with that, it was getting late, so he decided to turn in for the night.

* * *

(Velvet Room)

"Welcome to the Velvet Room," Igor greeted him. Yu had been summoned to the limo known as the Velvet Room once before, on the train to Inaba when he fell asleep to be warned about an impending danger. Yu hadn't quite believed him until he had grown rainbow-colored ears and a tail and jumped into a TV at a department store three times.

"I see that you have acquired your powers," Margaret spoke after Igor finished saying that he was really asleep, which Yu almost missed because he was lost in thought. "You have the power known as the Wild Card. You can summon many more Personas than just Izanagi. If you want to deal with handling your Personas yourself, then you can, but if you would like, we can manage them for you."

Yu nodded dumbly. "Um, sure?"

Margaret laughed. "Don't worry. I'll show you later what I mean. But first you have to get new Personas."

"Yes," Igor started his part of a seemingly well-planned out speech. "Keep in mind that you can only have so many Personas with you at a given time, however. We are sorry for the inconvenience, but it would be better for you not to be swamped by the almost alarming amount of Personas that are available to you."

"Our friend Marie," Margaret said, looking over at an unoccupied spot, "is off for a moment today, but tomorrow, she will be back, and she will manage your Personas for you if you don't want to deal with them. This will come at a price, but it won't be that bad."

"Is it money, or do I have to do something for her?" Yu asked.

"That's for her to decide," Margaret answered. Yu nodded in understanding, all the while hoping that she wouldn't request him to do something completely ludicrous, like kill someone, or teach her how to skydive, or something else stupid. If so, he was going to figure out how to manage his own damn spiritual warriors.

Igor's already smiling face smiled some more. "Tomorrow, we will give you another long-winded speech that you will probably tune out about another power that you have. It relates to the odd ears and tail that you now possess."

Before Yu could ask about the strange powers that Igor had just mentioned, he was thrust out of the Velvet Room, waking up in the real world, with his alarm beeping at him to wake the hell up.

* * *

(Saturday) (24th)

At school, Yosuke was looking nervous, pacing around, when Yu walked into the room, wearing a hat that looked to Yu like it had a slight bulge at two points on the top. When Yosuke saw him, he jumped forward, grabbing Yu by the wrist and dragging him into the bathroom. When Yosuke was sure no one was inside the bathroom, he ripped the hat off, revealing that Yosuke had the same canine-like ears, only a pretty orange and green tie-dye.

"What am I going to do?" Yosuke asked him frantically.

"OK, calm down," Yu told him. "No matter what you do, refrain from removing your hat, as if you couldn't figure that out. Later we will go to Junes, and get a hat that won't show that you have the ears. I can see them with that hat. Secondly, do you have a tail?" Yu asked him. Yosuke looked confused, but slowly, a tail appeared from behind him, same as Yu's, and it had the same color and pattern as his ears. "OK then... How did you hide that until now? Anyway, what works for me is wrapping it around my waist. I think that anyone who sees it thinks that it's just a furry belt, so I don't complain. At lunch, follow my lead and I will get someone who knows about my ears."

Yosuke nodded, saying, "I'm counting on you to help me," and carefully put his hat back on, wrapping his tail around his waist, though taking the time to pull his shirt over it as they walked back out the bathroom.

The two got any earful from King Moron about wearing hats in class, which Yu was used to already, but he didn't make them take them off, muttering something about the dress code saying nothing about hats and that 'the Shirogane kid that's always wearing a hat is making a mess of things, giving kids stupid ideas about what they can do.' The rest of the teachers also gave them a bit of a lecture about not looking like they cared about school while wearing the hats, but also didn't require them to remove the covers. Really, it was a little worthless to chew out a student and then don't reinforce what they complained about. No one was complaining, though.

As soon as the bell rung for lunch, Yu was walking out the door with Yosuke following not far behind. At the bottom floor, Yu walked up to Naoto. "We have a problem," he stated simply.

Naoto looked at Yosuke, noticing the hat, and the slight bulge. "Don't tell me…" she muttered grimily. Yu nodded, and she sighed, before dragging them outside. "Let's see them," she told Yosuke, looking around to make sure no one could see. Yosuke sighed and removed the hat. Naoto stared at them for a second, before sighing and removing her hat, resting it on his head. "Your hat shows off the fact that the ears exist. I want my hat back by the end of the day, but for now, wear it."

She told out her phone. Yu looked over her shoulder to see what she was doing. She got annoyed at him after a moment and walked away. She was calling his uncle, probably to inform him of what happened. After a minute, she came back, telling Yosuke that they would get him a hat later, and return to the Dojima residence afterwards.

* * *

(A couple hours later…)

The three had bought Yosuke a hat that was like Yu's, only with a color scheme that matched his ears. Junes was a special shop, that's for sure. Where else would you find such strange looking hats?

For a while on the way to Yu's home, they debated on telling his parents. Yosuke told them, "I'll inform them if necessary, but I have no desire to tell them. That would be such a hassle. Think about their reactions."

After entering the house, Nanako just about demanded to see Yosuke's new ears, at which point Yosuke removed his hat, and allowed Nanako to play with his tail. Dojima carefully examined the ears, reaching the same conclusion as with Yu. He had no clue where they came from, or how they attached themselves to his head. So basically he figured out nothing at all.

Finding that they would gain nothing from the new case of dog-like ears, which Dojima seemed to want to call 'demon ears' simply because they were so creepy to him, the group all sat down for some dinner. It was quite lively, as there were five people instead of usual two that Yu had grown used to. While eating, the news was on; talking about a murder. The victim had just appeared dead in an alleyway a week or so ago. While they didn't say who was dead, Dojima and Naoto revealed it was Ms. Yamano, a local reporter.

After they had finished, Yosuke gave Yu his cell number, then he and Naoto went home, returning the house to its more peaceful state. Yu retreated to his room after finding out that it was raining, figuring he should watch that Midnight Channel, calling Yosuke to confirm that he would watch as well.

After getting off the phone, Yu realized that he still had another couple hours, so he sat down and built his model for a while, and at the beginning of 10 o'clock, he finally finished it. 30 minutes before 11, he finished the section of translating he had been given upon accepting the job. 5 minutes before the Midnight Channel was to come on, Yu stopped working on origami cranes, glad that the time was almost upon him, as otherwise, he would have run out of paper. That, or lose his mind. He had about 2 large crates worth of the things. He _really_ needed to get himself a book.

Yosuke called him up a minute before the Channel come on to make sure that he was awake, and then hung up, agreeing to call if something interesting came on. What did come on was far past 'interesting.'

On the screen was Yukiko Amagi, Chie's best friend, if Yu recalled correctly. It looked like she was on a crappy reality TV show.

"Good evening!" She greeted an invisible audience that clapped for her. "Tonight, Princess Yukiko, that's me, has a special surprise for you all! I'm going to… go score myself a hot stud! Welcome to 'Not a Dream, Not a Hoax,'" behind her popped a corny title. "Princess Yukiko's hunt for her Prince Charming! And I came prepared: I've got my lacy unmentionables on, stacked from top to bottom! I'm out to catch a whole harem, and the best of the lot is going to be all mine! Well, here I go!" Yukiko ran to the castle that had been in the background the whole time, entering a black and red spiraling… something or other that Yu could only assume to be an entrance. Then the TV turned off.

Yu stared at the now blank screen, dumbfounded, mouth agape in shock. After a couple minutes, Yosuke finally called. Yu was glad for the distraction.

"Please don't tell me that was real," he muttered.

"Depends on what you saw. I saw that Yukiko Amagi is apparently going to score herself a stud in a castle with a really creepy entrance," Yu answered.

"Yeah, it was real then. Fucking lovely. Let's just sort this out tomorrow, alright?"

Yu agreed and hung up, flopping onto his futon and trying to sleep, but found that it was unfortunately difficult, considering what he just witnessed.

* * *

(The Velvet Room)

"Welcome once again to the Velvet Room," Igor greeted him with his still smiling face, his mouth seemingly unmoving.

"As my master said yesterday, tonight, we will tell you about your new animal-like powers," Margaret informed him.

"Strangely, it appears that several Arcana have been locked away for you," Igor continued the speech, once again seemingly well-planned. "Those of the Devil, Death, Hanged Man, Jester, and Moon Arcanas have strangely become unusable in your current form. You can still utilize them, but it appears that they will only be accessible in your other form."

"It appears that you can only use Personas of those Arcana while using that other form that you utilized to kill your friend's Shadow," Margaret told Yu.

"Hang on," Yu stopped the two before they could say anything else. "Why the hell could I use Izanagi then, if I can't use a Persona of the Arcana that I can use while in my normal form?"

Igor frowned, a rare spectacle in Yu's eyes. "That is a bit of a mystery to us as well. It could just be because you wouldn't be able to finish the Shadow off yourself. Or maybe it's because the rules weren't set at that moment." Yu stared at the two, confused. What 'rules'? "We don't understand it either. Just roll with it." Yu nodded, skeptical about this whole business.

"We will see you again, tomorrow," Igor finished rather abruptly, before forcing Yu out of the room, waking him. He found that his alarm wasn't beeping at him this morning, which he was quite grateful for. Though it was an hour before he had to get up.

* * *

(Sunday) (25th)

Yu, Yosuke and Chie met up at the food court. Chie told them that Yukiko was gone, and Yu confirmed that as well, as he had met up with Naoto on the way over, and she said that Yukiko has been reported as kidnapped. The group feared for their friend, so Yu thought that maybe Teddie had an idea, considering she appeared in a strange area that looked like the TV world, not that the others knew what it looked like without fog. According to Chie, it was so foggy that she could barely see the Yukiko on the screen. Yu and Yosuke had no trouble with their new, enhanced senses, however. How exactly it applied to TV made no sense at all.

"Speaking of Teddie," Yosuke began talking about the strange bear. "What is up with him? Who controls him? What human could live there for so long?"

"Actually, he is completely free of humans inside of that costume. In other words, he's empty," Yu answered, earning two people staring at him with gaping mouths.

"He's empty, as in, there isn't anything controlling him?!" Chie asked.

"Yeah, I found that out with the strange enhanced senses that came with the ears and tail," Yu responded.

"Right, that's odd. Anyway, we need some weapons if we are to go in there again, I saw what was up with the Shadow creatures," Yosuke said.

"OK then, I know of a really good place that has all sort of things of the metal variety," Chie said.

The other two nodded and got up, following Chie to her destination.

* * *

(A whole ten minutes, because Yu wanted to drop off the completed jobs and get some more paper, later...)

"Good God Yu, couldn't all of that stuff wait? Isn't Yukiko more important?" Chie asked, earning a blunt 'no' as a response. She sighed, annoyed. "Anyway, we're here!"

The group stood in front of a shop which sign revealed it was called 'Daidara's Metalworks', which, according to Chie, was the shop of the best weapons smith there was within a couple hundred miles of Inaba. They walking in and talked to Daidara for a minute, and Chie picked up her stuff, that she apparently requested a week or so ago, all wrapped up in a nice little package, and then she left, leaving the boys with 1,000 yen, whatever money that Yu had earned, and a crap ton of dangerous weapons lying around that shouldn't be left in the hands of a bunch of teenage boys.

Yu picked up an imitation katana for himself, and started looking at short-range weapons for his other form, knowing it would be more natural for him to not wield a long sword in a beast-like mode. He decided to use dual claws that were longer and sharper than his nails. The claws part protruded from the knuckles. They covered his hands and wrists as well, protecting them.

Yu then considered the fact that he would likely get hurt in the other world, so he looked through the armor to find something that suited him. Finding something that fit him, and that he could hide under his uniform, he bought them, and looked at Yosuke, who was testing out two different pairs of kunai.

After he decided, Yu whispered to him about the beast form, and pointed Yosuke to look at the knuckle/claw/whatever they were weapons. He picked up lighter versions of Yu's, as he was going for speed to make up for the fact that he was rather weak physically, picking up armor as well. Yu gladly paid for Yosuke's items as well, as he had money to burn, and they walked out the store, Chie texting them to meet back at the food court.

* * *

(Back at the food court…)

Chie was waiting for them in the normal table that the group had pretty much claimed over the three times they were there. Chie got up as they approached, walking to the TVs at the electronics, not waiting for the boys, who were still a ways off. The boys caught up, and they all entered the TV.

* * *

(Inside the TV…)

Teddie was standing there, almost like he had been waiting for something to happen. "Hey there you guys, I think someone fell in here, but the Shadows aren't allowing me to get close so I can let her out," he told them as they landed on the platform, with a smile on his face for reasons unknown to the humans, considering the circumstances.

"Can you help us get to her, Teddie?" Yu asked him, gaining a wider smile from the bear.

"Well, if I do, you have to fight, and you also have to promise to help uphold the peace of my world," Teddie said, smiling a tad bit too much for the humanoids' enjoyment now.

"What are we, the Knights of the Kingdom of Teddie?" Yosuke asked sarcastically, acting like Teddie was an annoying king that he had the misfortune of getting helped by, now having to repay the debt.

"Sure!" Teddie replied, still being all too cheerful. "Now then, follow me, loyal knights of the Teddie Kingdom!"

Yosuke groaned. "I didn't mean that literally, stupid bear," he muttered the last part to avoid Teddie yelling at him about being kind to the king or some nonsense.

"Good job, it appears that he now believes that he is medieval royalty," Chie said, and then proceeded to thwack Yosuke on the head.

Teddie turned and glared at Chie. "You can't hit a fellow knight! Unless, of course, I authorize it, or he really deserves it."

Chie responded to this with, "He did deserve it."

To this, Teddie said, "Oh, alright," and left it at that. Yosuke silently cursed his name for this.

As they walked, Teddie said, "Ok, because I now have subjects to rule over, we need some rules."

"Great," Yosuke groaned sarcastically.

"Just smile and nod and look like you care," Yu advised in a low whisper. Speaking up, Yu asked, "Hey Teddie-"

"That's King Teddie to you!" Teddie snapped.

"Right… anyway, do you think that you can get us a safe place for our stuff? I don't want to lug around my weapons at home. I'd probably kill someone. Or get arrested. Or possibly both."

Teddie thought for a moment, and then nodded. "I think I can arrange for that."

With that decided, Teddie turned his attention towards getting them down to the castle that had appeared on the Midnight Channel.

When they arrived at their destination, Yu and Yosuke requested that Teddie would hold their hats, and it was only because Yu was Teddies' so-called 'favorite knight' that he did so. As the four were about to walk in, Chie got impatient and ran ahead, out of sight in no time.

The rest of them sighed, and ran forward. Yu ran through the spiral entrance to the inside of the castle, momentary standing dramatically as though he was in a dramatic movie full of explosions upon arriving out the other end. Hands clad in metal, katana gripped in one hand, Yosuke standing next to him, metallic hands clutching his kunai, it was all very cheesy when you thought about it.

They darted forward, hacking and slashing through all of the Shadows that threatened them, gathering things from treasure chests, and finally reaching the second floor, where Chie had stopped at. All this took less than 20 minutes, but more than 15, which was really stupid, considering they had been running, and only managed to clear one floor in all that time.

Standing in front of her was a Shadow that had taken the form of Chie. Apparently, just a moment before the boys had arrived, the Shadow self had popped up and started to rag on her true self and Yukiko. At least, that's what the boys assumed.

"Yukiko knows that she can't do anything without us. We're better than her in every way!" The Shadow exclaimed.

"Someone has self-esteem issues," Yu muttered to Yosuke.

"Yeah, just a little," Yosuke replied.

"What?" Chie questioned. "I don't think that! I'm better at some things, but everything? That's pushing it quite a bit."

"Who cares? Yukiko heavily relies on us. It's not like anyone can tell that we're not as good as her."

"Tell that to my grades. Have you seen the difference between us?" Chie asked.

The Shadow thought for a moment. "Ok, you got me there," it admitted. "But in every other case, we're better."

"What about the looks department?" Chie asked.

Shadow Chie frowned. "Will you stop?"

"Should we do something?" Yu asked.

"I think she's got this," Yosuke replied.

Chie shook her head. "Nah. Raining on your little rant is too much fun."

"Fuck you," the Shadow said.

"Fuck you too," Chie replied nonchalantly.

"You're annoying!"

"If you really are me, then you're basically insulting yourself," Chie informed her other self.

Shadow Chie, thoroughly annoyed, said, "Fine, yes, we're annoying, sure, whatever! Just say you aren't me so we can get this over with and you can DIE!"

"If I going to die by saying 'you aren't me,' then what's my motivation for saying it? Besides death, of course, which I don't want, believe it or not. Plus, wouldn't you die as well if you are me, and I die?"

Shadow Chie's eye twitched violently. "I'm just going to pretend that you said it and meant it when you said 'you aren't me.'"

"But she didn't," Yosuke said. "What're you going to do now, huh?"

"Shut up before we kick you into next week," Shadow Chie threatened.

"You're going to kick me into next week anyway," Yosuke complained.

"Yep," Shadow Chie responded. "Now where were we?"

"You're pretending I said 'you aren't me'?" Chie suggested.

"Technically, you just said it, therefore, we're not just pretending you said it," Shadow Chie pointed out. With a shrug, she said, "Good enough for me. Otherwise, we'd be here all day."

With that, she transformed. She because a somewhat humanoid creature sitting on top of three grayed out, NPC looking… things that seemed to seriously have issues holding her up.

Yu sighed and rolled his eyes, muttering, "Just great," as he dropped the katana, and flexed his clawed hands a little. "Cover me for a minute," he requested from Yosuke, while he tried to figure out how to go into the beast mode, which required quite a bit of concentration at the moment. As he started to call forth the power, Yu muttered under his breath that he hoped the process would get easier, hopefully soon.

Finally feeling the energy coarse through him, Yu shot forward, slashing and hacking with his weapons, and everything else was composed of things that an animal would do. Yosuke jumped back, starting to tap into his inner animal.

Yu raised a hand, intending to summon Izanagi. When the card floated in front of him, there were no Arcana. Yu was surprised, and he heard a voice in his head, probably Margaret, say, 'Izanagi is unavailable when you are in your current form, remember? You don't have a Persona that you can use currently. All of the Personas of the Arcana you want are much too strong for you to control anyway.' Yu swore under his breath and released the form, summoning Izanagi, while he ran to retrieve his katana.

As he picked it up, Yosuke shot past him, with his Persona at his side, presumably because he couldn't have multiple Personas, allowing him to use his normal one. Yu wasn't happy, and ranted in his mind that he shouldn't be barred like he is, multiple Personas and Arcanas be damned. Yosuke and Jiraiya tag-teamed the Shadow, taking away a large chunk of its life, which the boys could see like it was a video game, but Yu didn't _think_ that it was because of their powers. Maybe it was just the world.

Yu and Izanagi ran forward to fight as well, the combined might knocking the creature down. They all piled onto it, and because Yu wanted to be cool about it, he entered his other form once again, and made the Shadow say hello to the bottom of his foot. The creature melted away in a black goop, Shadow Chie slowing standing up out of it, with a light red mark on her face from where Yu kicked her.

Chie stared at the Shadow as Yu and Yosuke pulled out their nail clippers, conversing to each other about how they would have to buy her a hat, and also about how they should really only clip their nails before exiting the TV. Because they were midway through the act, though, they should finish.

Shadow Chie walked up to the real one, asking, "So… can you forgive me for threatening to kill you?"

Chie shrugged. "It was a threat, it's not like you actually managed to do it. Why not? Do I get special, creepy powers from you or something?"

"Yep," Shadow Chie said, transforming into a Persona before disappearing into Chie.

"That was worthless!" Yosuke yelled. "Her Shadow didn't even spill any stupid secret or anything! I went through hell, and you just got into a pitiful argument!"

"I'm not complaining," Chie said happily.

A second later, she collapsed, barely conscious and the boys sighed as Yosuke picked her up, luckily not getting smacked for the action, while Yu looked through the things that he picked up in the dungeon. Throwing up a small item marked 'Goho-m', which seemed to be a really bad joke, it burst and poured over them, and suddenly they were back at the entrance. Before they left, Yu kindly asked, "Can you keep an eye on our weapons until we get back? I don't want to be thrown in jail for having these things around."

Teddie nodded. "Sure thing, knight! Hurry back, though, I don't want to get lonely."

"Um…" Yu muttered before jumping into the Exit TV to avoid replying to that.

Teddie stood there and stared at the spot where Yu had been. "He ran away…" he muttered.

* * *

(In Junes…)

The boys immediately walked over to the hats, telling Chie that she would probably get the ears now that she has a Persona. Chie looked through the hats as the boys fed her information about keeping her new features secret. Chie picked out her hat, a yellow and white one, which confused the boys, as there were many other colors, but she just walked away, ignoring them. They paid for the hat, and walked out the department store, walking their separate ways when the time came. How exactly Chie managed to actually get home when Yosuke couldn't even remain conscious after getting his Persona was a mystery.

* * *

 **You know, admittedly I can't seem to remember what I had planned for why Ms. Yamano died. I remember having it be some sort of elaborate scheme or something, and her area in the Midnight Channel would still appear... but now I just can't remember what it was. So, I'm just going to let it drop and act like it was never a thing to begin with.**

 **As you will quickly notice with this story, Igor is not... normal. He's... well, I imagine that after a couple hundred years you'd grow very fucking lax about everything, considering your only real company would be a couple of insane sisters and a teenager. (And in the case of the first two games (technically three, since two is two separate games) a singer and a pianist.) All of them seem quite lax, so I imagine Igor would just give up after a while. I'm pretty sure in the original version of this story, he still retained some formality, but this time... Oh fuck no, he's going off the rails. I'm ten chapters into fixing this, and his lax-ness isn't improving. In fact, it's getting worse with Marie around.**

 **And with that, I bid you and yours a very merry non-denominational winter solstice festival, and a very merry New Years as well, unless I upload another chapter before the end of the year, at which point this message will be repeated.**


	5. The Caged Girl

**Shit, it's 2016. Kinda scary, isn't it? It is for me. Mostly because I have school in a couple days. NO!**

 **By the way, I don't know the actual probability of getting a fusion incident. So I made something up because it felt right.**

* * *

Chapter 5

(Around 6 in the morning…) (Monday) (26th)

Yu woke to the sound of his phone ringing. He blindly moved his hand around looking for it, until his hand hit in, and he opened it, finding that it was Yosuke calling. (Not that anyone else would call him.)

Pressing the answer button, he brought it to his ear, saying, "Hello Yosuke, what do you need?"

Yosuke sighed, and said, "She has them."

Yu sighed as well. "Good thing that we bought the hat," he muttered. Yosuke agreed and hung up. Yu rolled out of bed, knowing that he wouldn't get any more sleep, so he might as well get ready for the day.

* * *

As Yu walked down the road to the school, Chie ran up to him. "I'm assuming that Yosuke told you around 6 or so, considering how tired you look?"

Yu looked at her briefly, noting the hat, before returning his attention to the road. "Yeah, you're observant, aren't you? He called me _way_ too early to say, 'She has them.' I told him it was good that we bought the hat early then, he agreed, and hung up. It was a very lack-luster conversation, and I wish he had held off on it until I was actually awake."

"You didn't have to tell me about almost all of your talk with him," Chie told him.

Yu smiled. "I might as well, right? Anyway, I was talking to my uncle and Naoto, and they aren't making any headway with that murder that took place a week or so ago blocking them, so we are stuck with wondering what is going on with them until they are free."

"Yeah OK then, I think I can deal with these things long enough. I think... I think they're that of a lion's. I don't know my animals, so I could be wrong, but that's the impression I get."

"Lioness," Yu corrected. "Lioness is a female lion."

"Do I look like I care? Anyway, they're a pretty yellow and white, which I find weird because my hat happens to be the same colors." Chie then remembered something. "Hey, we will rescue Yukiko today, right?" Yu looked at her and nodded as they finally arrived at the school.

After school, Yosuke went with Chie to get the short weapon for the beast form. Yu stayed outside, and while the others were curious as to why, they didn't ask. As soon as they were gone, Yu ran over to the glowing door not far away. He entered it, and was greeted by Igor. Yu had gotten a couple Personas while on the dungeon hunt, but sadly nothing that he could use with the other form.

"Hey, Igor," Yu greeted as he took a seat in the provided chair.

"Good morning, young guest. How are you?"

"Well, I'm not dead, so that's a plus," Yu answered with a shrug. "So I really want to use a Persona in that other form of mine. What do I have to do?"

"Your only option is to fuse them and hope that you get a fusion incident to get a Persona that will yield the results you want," Igor informed him. "Otherwise, you'll have to wait to get one in the dungeons or for us to fuse one for you."

"I'm fusing then. I don't have any use for the ones I have now besides Izanagi anyway," Yu said, holding out two Persona cards.

Igor nodded. "Very well then." He accepted the two cards.

Igor performed the common procedure for fusing. To everyone's shock, however, the result was unlike what had been expected. "Huh. What are the odds?" Igor asked himself. "Not only did you get lucky and get a fusion incident, you also happened to get…" he held up the card.

Yu stared at it and, possibly through his Wild Card ability, was able to identify it and its Arcana. "Mokoi, a Death Arcana Persona," he finished for the creepy man.

"I didn't even know it was possibly to get as lucky as you got here," Igor said as he handed the card to Yu. "Not only that, it's stronger than you."

"Meaning…?" Yu inquired.

"…I'll be blunt. It might bite you in the ass. Quite literally, in fact. That's why we bar you from fusing Personas that are higher level than you. Haven't you ever played Pokemon?"

Yu made a face that displayed his displeasure at the thought. "It will literally bite me? On the ass?"

"That is a possibility," Igor said, a small smile forming on his lips at the thought.

"I don't think I want this anymore," Yu said, looking down at the picture on the card, specifically at the look the Persona seemed to be giving him.

"Calm down," Igor advised. "Just be careful. Work a little and grow stronger. You will be able to utilize it effectively eventually."

"As long as it doesn't literally bite me on the ass," Yu said. "Thank you, goodbye." He then left the Velvet Room.

After he was gone, Igor turned to Margaret. "Seriously, what are the odds of that happening, anyway?"

"I believe there is a... 1/64 chance for a normal fusion to screw up," Margaret answered. "Happening to get a Persona of the wanted Arcana and stronger than the user… I can't say. Don't think it's happened before."

Igor snickered. "I wonder if he'll come back here with a bite mark on his ass?"

"That is likely," Margaret smiled. "I will get a kick out of that."

"As will I," Igor said.

* * *

Yu reaching the shop that his friends had entered right as they walked out. Yu smiled and told them, "Let's go, I just got a new Persona I want to try out." The two non-Wild Cards looked at each other in confusion, but shrugged and walked with Yu to the TV anyway.

On the way, Yosuke started talking. "You know, while we were shopping, we suddenly realized that Chie attacks with her legs, so it was worthless to get her any new weapons."

Yu stopped walked, and his face contorted in confusion, then he shook it off and continued walking, not questioning why they didn't remember that earlier or why a female wearing a skirt would kick her opponents when her male teammates could easily see up her skirt while she was doing so. Chie then informed him that she wore shorts under that specifically so they couldn't do that.

* * *

(Inside of the TV…)

Teddie opened his mouth.

The others were gone as soon as they could pick up their weapons and run.

* * *

(Yukiko's castle…)

Teddie was annoyed at the humanoids for running off, not talking to them, though still, he held their hats while they ran around fighting through hordes of enemies. They ran into a couple snags along the way, but managed to get past them with little difficulty. Finally, the only thing that stopped them from getting to Yukiko was a door, and possibly their own fatigue. They were getting rather tired at that point.

Yu looked at the others and told them to be prepared as he pushed on the door. It opened with a slight creak, and they walked into the large majestic room, fully prepared to hear Shadow Yukiko's spiel.

Shadow Yukiko looked at them with interest. "Wow, three princes have come to see us? So you've come to take us away to a land where no one will know us? You'll do that for us, correct?"

"Three princes?" Chie asked. "Who's the third?"

"That would be me!" Teddie yelled.

"I doubt that," Yosuke said.

"Yeah, and you proclaim that you're a 'king,' therefore you aren't a prince," Yu pointed out.

Shadow Yukiko chuckled. "Yes, the bear is not the third prince. That honor goes to Chie."

"Me?" Chie asked. "OK… that's a little creepy."

"Yes, you were our prince for the longest time. But it's occurred to us that you can't save us. You can't take us away from Inaba!"

"Why do you want to get away?" Yu asked. "Sure, it's in the middle of nowhere, but that's a bit of a lame excuse."

"We're a manager in training for a historic inn!" Shadow Yukiko screeched.

"So?" Yosuke asked. "Doesn't sound all that bad. You get to go to the hot springs for free! Plus, if you ever decide to get another job in customer service, that would look good on your resume."

Shadow Yukiko stared. "That's the thing. We can't get another job. Our life is laid out for us!"

"You're dense, aren't you?" Yu asked. "I mean, why don't you just ask your parents to let you take another job outside of the inn and see how you like it? Who knows, maybe the inn will seem like the perfect place afterwards. At the very least, just be glad you don't have to risk your life for your job. That would be something that you should want to get away from."

"Would you shut it?" Shadow Yukiko requested.

"Request denied," Yu replied, about to continue talking.

"Who cares if we can or can't get another job?!" Shadow Yukiko yelled before Yu could continue. "We'll still be here, in Inaba, where we'll be expected to do what we have been doing our whole life! The inn is the 'pride of the town.' It's the only reason people might come here. Therefore, we are expected to take over sooner or later! We can't get away on our own."

Yukiko had sat there this whole time, listening to the Shadow's rant. Finally, she piped up. "Why are you using plural pronouns to refer to yourself?"

Shadow Yukiko turned to her other self. "That's what you ask? Of all that things that you should be asking me, you ask why I use plural pronouns?"

Yukiko nodded. "Yep," she replied. "But wait… you just used singular. What?"

"Don't ask," Shadow Yukiko advised.

"Too late," Yukiko said.

Shadow Yukiko rolled her eyes. "Does it matter?"

"Kinda," Yukiko answered. "You got me curious now."

"Yeah, all the Shadows seem to do that. Why?" Yu asked.

"If you must know," Shadow Yukiko sighed, "when we use plural, we are speaking for both of our selves, Shadow and real."

"Then why did you use singular?" Yukiko asked.

"Because I am speaking directly to you, my other self. As of right now, we have two separate bodies, so I use 'I' to differentiate between us."

"Um, I think I understand. I hope," Yukiko said.

"Do you regret asking?" Shadow Yukiko asked. Yukiko nodded. "I warned you."

"Yeah, I do regret it to an extent, but now I at least understand why your speech pattern is like it is."

"Now, where were we?"

"This seems to be a common occurrence," Yu noticed. "We always seem to distract the Shadows and then they have to ask where they were."

"Why don't we just make up some lie and then teleport out of here?" Yosuke asked.

"Yeah, why haven't we tried that?" Teddie asked. "Three people with supernatural powers is enough, really."

Yu nodded. "Then let's do it!"

The three turned to the two Yukikos. To their dismay, however, they found that the real Yukiko had denied the Shadow at some point within their conversation. Said Shadow was now midway through transforming.

"Dammit," Yu muttered, putting away the Goho-m that he had grabbed.

The team ran forward, Chie telling Yukiko to get out of the room until they give the OK. Yukiko nodded, frightened, and ran out the door. Yu called forth his powers, somehow managing it under a minute, and jumped at the Shadow. With the slight increase in strength granted to him, he latched onto the Shadow's feathered stomach. Shadow Yukiko screeched and closed itself inside its cage, shaking around, ramming him painfully against the bars. Yu carefully reached out a hand as the Shadow momentarily stopped shaking around, and called forth the Persona Mokoi to attack the phoenix while it was still inside the cage.

He had used the Persona once on the way up, and it had been a tad bit disobedient, but it wasn't anything that Yu couldn't handle in the end. He just hoped that it wouldn't refuse to fight during this rather critical moment.

Yosuke suddenly had a great idea, whispering it to Chie. He called out to Yu, saying, "Sorry buddy!" Yosuke told Chie to freeze the lock on the Shadow's cage, trapping him, the phoenix, and his Persona inside. Yu crushed a card that caused the Persona to use a magic attack. He had intended it to fire off a Hysterical Slap attack, but it chose then to be rebellious. It performed a Dekaja instead, although that did nothing to help. Yu growled in annoyance as he called out to his friends to break the lock back open while Shadow Yukiko started to flail around again. To his surprise, it was then that Mokoi decided to be a complete dick and bit him. Luckily, it wasn't on the ass as Yu had feared, but it stung all the same.

Chie broke away the ice rather quickly, and the Shadow burst out of the cage that had held it. When it did so, Yu was flung off the bird's stomach, landing on the cold hard ground with a 'thunk.' Yu released the power, and summoned Orobus, a Persona he guessed that Marie chick Margaret had mentioned fused for him with his available Personas, which was resistant to fire attack, making it an ideal ally for the fight. The Shadow threw a fire attack at him, but it just bounced right off his chest because of the invisible protection. Yu summoned a card that he crushed in his hand, making the Persona perform a Hysterical Slap, which achieved the result that Yu had wanted from his Death Arcana Persona.

While the attack looked like it hurt the creature, it was far from taking in down. The Shadow then called out to thin air, saying, "Come, my Prince! Help me deal with these fake princes!"

A Shadow that looked quiet comical, like it was attempting to imitate a prince, and was doing so rather badly, came to answer the bird Shadow's call, appearing out of seemingly nowhere.

Yu looked at it, and guessed that Izanagi would be helpful, calling the Persona forth and hitting the creature with a Zio spell, which knocked it down. Chie then used her Bufu spell and knocked the phoenix off of its perch. Yosuke smiled and said, "Alright, they're down, let's pile on them and take them down!"

Yu looked at his friend, and simply nodded, rushing forward, entering his stronger form. Yosuke did so as well, and Chie followed, although not using her other form due to knowing it would take too long to enter it, and that if she did, then the opponents would get back up before she could muster up the energy. They beat down on the creatures while Teddie yelled at them in the background, not stopping until Shadow Yukiko pushed them away with her rather large wingspan.

What the group had achieved was rather impressive. Shadow Yukiko was slouching at her perch, and her so-called 'prince' ran away in fright as soon as it got back up. Shadow Yukiko stared at it as it started to disappear in a strange way that Shadows could, and called out to it. "My prince, why are you leaving? These peasants cannot defeat you!" The prince was gone before she could finish her sentence.

The Shadow continued to stare in shock until she was smacked by Yu and Yosuke still in the animal mode. Shadow Yukiko let out an ear-murdering shriek and promptly exploded in a burst of feathers, and her perch and chandelier blew up like a bomb a second later.

Under all of the feathers was where Shadow Yukiko emerged, quiet calm despite the rage that she had been in a minute ago. She watched, her face blank, as Chie ran to get Yukiko. Yukiko slowly walked into the room, staring timidly at her Shadow, but also had an air of determination.

She walked up to her Shadow, and her other self cringed when she came up, expecting to hear something harsh that didn't relate to denying the poor creature, but was just as bad. Instead of what the Shadow was expecting, Yukiko looked down and said, "You know, I was thinking while you guys were battling." Shadow Yukiko looked up at her in shock. "You're right. I want to get away from Inaba, but I don't know how, and I want to get someone to help, to act as my prince. If anything I want to not have my life mapped out for me."

Shadow Yukiko smiled, nodding her head in happiness that Yukiko understood what she was trying to show to her. Yukiko's other self then floated in the air like the other Shadows and transformed into a pink woman who had a helmet and a feather-sash-thing (something like that) attached to her hands. Like all of the other Personas, this one was no different in turning into a ball, and floating into Yukiko's chest.

Yukiko smiled for a second, and then collapsed in a faint. Yu knelt down and helped her up. "Good job, my knights!" Teddie called out to the group.

Yosuke groaned. "How long are you going to keep up the 'king' act? That was a joke I made yesterday!"

The group sighed, and Yu asked Yosuke to look in his pockets to find a Goho-m. After a minute, Yosuke successfully located the item, and they were back at the exit TVs. The group set down their weapons, and got their hats back from Teddie, and left the world.

* * *

 **There we go! See you... hopefully sooner than next month.**


	6. The Yukiko Chapter

**Hi, I changed my name! (Not my real one, mind you, not that any of you know it unless you've checked out the other site that recently I've started to frequent.) Sorry if it confused any of you, I just didn't like my old username and thought that my new DA account's username was just so much better.**

 **I can't seem to remember that no one has died from the TV in this story… It's getting annoying.**

 **The 'blending in by standing out' thing was told to me in my Marketing class from last semester, BTW. Tells you how long ago I wrote this, it was about mid-semester.**

 _ **By the way... N, Y, or NY? This will have significance later, you just won't know what it is until we get there, and that's 25 something chapters off, give or take a few, depending on how often I have to separate chapters due to increasing length, which I've done at least once.**_

* * *

Chapter 6

Yu landed on the floor of Junes, sighing in relief that they had saved their friend. After Chie and Yosuke came out the TV, they started to head to the Amagi Inn, only to run into Naoto. "Isn't that Yukiko Amagi?" She asked.

"Yes well, I can only guess, but it appears that she said, 'Screw this noise! I'm going to go live at Junes!'" Yu said, badly imitating Yukiko's voice.

"How insulting, I don't sound like that! I don't, right Chie?" Yukiko yelled, not happy that she woke to Yu's bad imitation of her.

"I'm sure if Yu-kun tried, he would have done a much better job, Yukiko," Chie answered.

"Moving away from that…" Naoto tried to drive the conversion away from Yu's bad acting skills. "What are you doing here?"

"Nothing much, just hanging out, when we ran into Yukiko, who for whatever reason fainted on us, so we decided to take her back to the inn. What about you?" Yu answered.

Naoto sighed. "Sadly, it appears that helping with your 'special case' has caused me to become your uncle's personal off-duty assistant."

Yu rolled his eyes. "Yeah, that seems random, but I guess that'll happen." He turned to his friends, and started to whisper. "We can't let her know of how people get the ears. I'll go with Naoto, and you guys get her a hat, alright?" He handed Yukiko over to Yosuke, and then turned around and asked Naoto, "Would you like some company on your journey for whatever my uncle has forced you to go get?"

Naoto smiled. "Sure, he wants a lot of things actually, so I guess we should split up." She pulled out a rather long list. The group gaped at the amount of things that Dojima wanted.

Yu looked over the list, ripping it in half. "I'll get these things. You take the other half. Whoever finishes first sends a text to the other, OK?"

Naoto nodded. "That is fine by me. Honestly, what does he want all of this for anyway?"

Yu shrugged and said, "It's probably better if we refrain from asking." He then walked off in search of the first item on the list. The rest of the eared crowd looked to each other, shrugged, and then walked off.

* * *

(About an hour later…)

Yu had finally collected all of the things on his half of the long list. He pulled out his cell, with some difficulty because of the large bags that he held, as he walked to a bench. Sitting down, he typed a message to Naoto. "I'm finally done with my half of the list. How close are you?"

He sent it, and then leaned back on the bench. About a minute later, his phone dinged, and he looked at the message. "Almost done, though I never really appreciated how strange these items are until I had to pick them up. The hell?"

Yu smiled. She obviously wasn't very happy with this task that she was given. "I don't think I want to know what is up with them. Want some help?" He replied.

A couple minutes later, Yu got his answer. "No real reason for that now, I'm almost done. Where are you?"

Yu looked around, realizing that he had no idea how to describe where he was; as he was located in the far corner of Junes that almost no one except the employees that worked there knew existed. He sighed and replied, "In a galaxy far, far away."

"What?" Yu chuckled at the response, knowing that he had successfully confused his friend.

"I'm in a far corner of the store that no one is aware that it exists, so let's just meet at the food court. I'm hungry." Yu started gathering his items, moving for the nearest elevator. About five minutes later, Yu was at the food court, setting down the bags, and running over to get some food.

For the next 30 minutes, Yu and Naoto ate and talked about the strange things that Dojima had requested for. As they started walking back, they decided that they would rather not know unless he offered an explanation.

As luck would have it, Dojima simply thanked them, and walked away to put them in his room. The two looked at each other in confusion, but remembered that they wouldn't question it. Naoto left, and Yu went back upstairs to read a book, but then remembered that he never bought any.

He swiftly started to exit the house, but Dojima stopped him. "Where do you think that you are going? It's a bit late, don't you think?"

Yu turned around. He hadn't expected to be stopped by his uncle; after all, he was in high school. "I just wanted to go get a book; I have nothing to do tonight. Would you rather I watched TV until 10?"

Dojima grunted. "The bookstore is closed, sorry. It closed about a half an hour ago."

Yu looked at the clock, finding that it was 7:30, which would be about a normal time for a bookstore to close. He sighed and walked back upstairs. Closing the door, he sighed and sat down on the couch, pulling out some of the paper that he had bought, making about 10 origami cranes before fatigue deciding to smack him in the face and yell at him to go to bed.

* * *

(Time skip) (Friday) (29th)

Tonight, the rain would stop, and the fog would set in, which the group had guessed from what Teddie had told them was the deadline for saving Yukiko. Yu worked on his translating while he waited for the Midnight Channel to come on. They were only doing this to see if there was any form of aftermath, but still, Yu didn't exactly want to be waiting for a blank screen to come on at midnight. What he saw when the Channel did come on was exactly what he had expected, so he just went to bed.

* * *

(30th) (Saturday)

After school, the group met up to talk to Yukiko about her appearance on the TV.

"So, Yukiko-chan, what do you remember?" Yosuke asked.

"Not much, really," she answered. "As time goes, it just kinda… blurs together."

"What can you recall, though?" Yu asked.

"Well, I remember the doorbell rang, so I went to answer it. After that, nothing. Next thing I know, I'm waking up in a castle, being stared at by another me with yellow eyes and a frilly dress that uses a lot of plural pronouns."

"So a wannabe murderer just… rang your doorbell?" Chie asked.

"That sounds ballsy," Yosuke commented.

"I bet they actually made themselves stand out so much that they didn't," Yu said. Upon seeing the odd looks that his friends gave him, he said, "You see, I've heard that in America, a lot of companies try to stand out so much that they become part of the clutter they want to break free of. No one sees them."

"Yes, but you're missing something," Chie said. "Inaba is the type of place where if you ran around wearing all yellow, you'd look like a complete maniac. You can't stand out so much that no one notices you."

"But they also weren't so plain that they looked out of place, either," Yosuke said.

"So, they'd be just wearing normal street clothes?" Yukiko asked.

"For now, that's our best bet," Yu said. "But let's not rule out anyone that has a company uniform that commonly is sent around the town. If you're seen in the uniform of your local postman, no one will bat an eye unless you lack any mail."

"Let's save that one for later. We need to worry about the majority for now, not the minority," Chie said.

Yu nodded. "Right. But for now, let's focus on making sure no one else is thrown in there. If another person comes along, which I hope doesn't happen, but I know it probably will anyway, then maybe they'll know something that Yukiko-chan couldn't see."

"Fair enough. Not much we can do now, anyway, other than guess," Yosuke said.

"So, Yukiko-chan," Yu said, turning to said person. "It's a bit much to ask, but would you help us out? I mean, you're being dragged into this anyway."

Yukiko nodded. "I really want to slap the guy who thinks he can do this to me. I'm in!"

Yosuke smiled. "Alright! Now we're getting somewhere!" He paused for a moment in thought. "Oh, you got ears now, right? Can we see them?"

Chie, for some reason, took this the wrong way, and almost kicked Yosuke over the fence keeping kids from regularly plummeting to their doom.

"OW!" He yelled, pained. "I asked to see her ears, what is wrong with that! It's like asking to see a new piercing, or a new outfit!"

"That was a little harsh," Yu said. "What was that for, anyway?"

"I don't know," Chie shrugged. "I'm rather used to doing that to any guy that says anything remotely akin to that to Yukiko. And I'm used to kicking Yosuke. Put it together, and you get a recipe for disaster."

Yukiko laughed. "You're not dying over there, right, Yosuke-kun?"

Yosuke groaned. "I might be…"

"Well, stop it," Yu demanded.

"Yes sir," Yosuke croaked.

The group, Yosuke excluded, laughed. Turning back to Yukiko, Yu took a step away from Chie, and proceeded to ask, "So, can we see your ears?"

Yukiko nodded and removed her hat. They seemed to be a fox's ears and were a light red at the base, and at the tips changed to a light purplish that almost appeared to sparkle.

"Pretty," Yu commented.

"Wish my ears sparkled like that," Yosuke pouted upon finally picking himself up.

"No you don't," Yu told him. "That would just look weird."

"Can't look any weirder than yours," Yosuke retorted. "I mean, yours look like a wad of chewed up Skittles put into a tie dye pattern. Besides, it's unlikely that anyone would pay any attention to it, and therefore they wouldn't say it looked weird. Unless they're normal, but they'd freak out regardless."

"Yeah, but then it defeats the point of wanting them to sparkle anyway," Chie pointed out.

Yosuke opened his mouth to argue, but gave up after a moment upon realizing he had no good way to respond. With a growl, he tried to switch the subject. "Hey, shouldn't we properly introduce her to Teddie, now that she's a part of the team?"

Yu and Chie looked to each other and shrugged. "Sure, why not," Yu responded.

"I just hope he drops the 'king' act by then," Yosuke muttered.

* * *

(Inside the TV…)

The four humans landed gracefully in the TV world. OK, there was one slip-up, but Yosuke never was extremely graceful…

After a moment, Teddie appeared with a smile. "Good morning, my loyal knights!" He greeted, to everyone's dismay, still utilizing the king act. "Here to properly introduce me to the new knight in your ranks?"

Yu nodded. "Yep. Yukiko, this is Teddie. He's a resident of this world. If I'm correct, your senses should be supernatural now, and you can tell that he's hollow inside, right?"

Yukiko nodded. "Now that you point it out, I can… 'see' it, I guess. This is such a weird feeling."

"Yeah, it takes a little to get used to, but it's really quite neat," Yu told her.

"Hey guys," Teddie said to get their attention. "I'm lonely here, so you need to visit more often, OK!?"

"Um, why are you only bringing this up now?" Yosuke asked.

"I forgot until now," Teddie responded.

Yosuke raised an eyebrow. "And what made you remember now?"

Teddie shrugged. "I don't know."

"Tell you what, Teddie. We'll bring you a 2,000 piece puzzle of something that consists of almost completely monochromatic red next time we come. That should keep you busy," Yosuke said.

Teddie seemed to love the idea.

"That would really start to hurt his eyes after a while," Yu commented. He stopped for a second. "Hang on… How can you see through the fog? You don't have any animal-spirit-demon-whatever they are parts. You shouldn't be able to see, right?"

Teddie shook his head. "I've made special lens for my eyes that cut right through the fog!"

"So they're like contacts?" Yukiko asked. "Also, that doesn't make any sense. I mean, I'm talking about things making sense while I'm hanging out with a bunch of people that have ears and tails, me myself included, but still."

"What's a contact?" Teddie asked. "Anyway, does it have to make sense at this point? Never question the logic of anything that happens in this world. After all, you'll be fighting living tables at one point or another."

Yukiko looked like she wanted to ask about this, but wisely chose to refrain from confusing herself more. "C-can we just… go?" She requested.

"How dare you say that in the presence of your king?!" Teddie yelled, appalled.

"Gladly, let's go," Yu said, ushering to the Exit TV before the angry bear could get to them. Not that he could do any real damage, though.

* * *

Dojima was home that day, so Yu couldn't go out, but luckily, he remembered to get a book, so he planned to read that while somewhat listening to Nanako's quiz shows in the background after he was done with dinner.

Yu sighed and sat down, eating his dinner while listening to the family talk.

He snapped to attention when Dojima slapped him on the back and said, "Yeah, we got this guy to help us out, after all!"

Yu looked up at his uncle. "What? I wasn't listening."

Dojima had a look on his face that effectively said in a joking tone, 'Well, fuck you too.' "I said, I might get the 4th and 5th off, so we're going on a trip. You're going to make the boxed lunches. I just hope you're at least a better cook than I am."

"Well, I'm not horrible, will that suffice? If anything, it's not likely that I'll use any rotten ingredients."

Dojima chuckled. "I hope not. If you gave me food poisoning, I'll give you a one-star review with your mother."

"Oh, the horror," Yu said sarcastically before returning to his food, watching as Nanako practically bounced off the walls in excitement.

* * *

(1st) (Sunday)

Yu was incredibly bored this lovely day. Everyone was off doing something that was probably interesting that he couldn't join in on. With nothing better to do, he decided to go check on the Velvet Room inhabitants, see if they had anything of interest to say.

"Morning," he greeted.

"Ah, our young protagonist," Igor greeted to Yu's slight confusion. "What is it that you need?"

"I'm bored," Yu complained.

Igor frowned. "Well, your problem isn't going to be solved here."

"Can't you give me something to do?" Yu requested.

"No, not unless you want to hang out here all day and observe how we interact," Margaret informed him.

"That doesn't sound too bad," Yu said, nodding. "Yeah, I'll do that."

Neither Igor nor Margaret were sure what to do at that point. And so, Margaret, presumably in an attempt to start a conversation, asked, "So, how rebellious was Mokoi? I never heard you mention him besides you saying, 'Oh God, please get rid of him' when you passed by the door a couple days ago."

Yu growled. "He actually bit me."

Margaret chuckled. "I didn't think he'd do that."

"Yes, well, he did. Not on the ass, luckily, but please tell me he'll be gone soon."

"You know, you should be strong enough now that he should listen to you."

Yu scoffed. "He bit me. I don't want him around anymore."

Margaret shrugged. "Suit yourself."

The room fell silent. Yu relaxed in his chair, simply observing the Velvet Room residents.

Becoming unnerved, Igor frowned and said, "Marie, go entertain our guest."

The girl named Marie, who had been sitting to Igor's left the whole time, but was so silent that Yu missed her completely, huffed. "Do I have to?"

"I'm not going to put up with your complaining, our guest watching us, or a combination of the two," Igor informed her. "Both of you, out!"

Yu chuckled. "You sound like a parent constantly being bugged by their 5-year old child."

"I feel like it," Igor groaned.

Marie, seemingly enjoying annoying the poor old man, started poking him for no apparent reason. Turning to Yu while still poking him, she asked, "Is this amusing you?"

Yu smiled. "Very much so."

"Both of you, out!" Igor yelled.

Margaret, in an attempt to make her master feel better, put her book to the side and got up, forcibly dragging Yu and Marie out of the room by the collars of their shirts. Throwing them onto the streets, she glared at them and said, "Don't come back until the end of the day." Then, she proceeded to slam the door shut.

Sitting on the ground, Yu and Marie started to chuckle. Pretty soon, they were laughing hysterically. Eventually, after getting many odd stares for their antics, they calmed down.

"Well, you're a hoot, aren't you?" Yu asked. "How often do you do that to him? He got riled up much quicker than I feel he should have."

Marie shrugged. "I didn't think that he considered me that annoying. But, I do bug him quite a bit. It's not like he has anything better to do than entertain me."

"Is that all he is to you? Someone who's solely there to amuse you?"

"Yep," Marie said proudly.

The rest of Yu's day was spent with Marie. When talking to anyone but Yu, Marie was quite cold, almost to the point of making a little kid cry. Upon seeing this, Yu was quite glad that she seemed to not bear any grudge against him.

* * *

(2nd) (Monday)

School let out, and Yu had no one to hang out with, so he took to wondering around town. Eventually, he came to the conclusion that he had two options. Jumping into TV for some training, or tutor Chie because she _seriously_ needed it. He took the latter option and decided to assist his friend. In that time, he finished all of his homework, and somehow managed to get Chie to understand what was going on and watched as she completed half of her own without his help. He left the school grounds with a broad smile on his face, happy that his friend was improving in her academics. The happy look on his face paled in comparison to Chie's, though, who looked like her smile was going to hurt her if she didn't drop it.

That smile faded when he got home and barely had time to remove his shoes before the phone was shoved in his hands. Holding it to his ear as Nanako ran to her room, Dojima spoke. "Listen, I know that we had plans for Golden Week, but one of the younger members got sick, and we can't just let the case he was working on sit, so I have to do it. Adachi and Naoto are stuck with me too. Neither of them seem particularly happy, either. I'm sorry, really."

"OK then, but you'd better make it up to Nanako; I think that she might be crying. I didn't get to say a word to her before she ran to her room," Yu told his uncle.

Dojima swore. "Shit, really? Damn it all, get her to calm down and make sure she knows that I'll do something to make it up to her later, OK?" Yu agreed and hung up, knocking on Nanako's door, spending his night making her feel better.

* * *

 **Oh, so close there, Yu. So close.**

 **Also, I changed Yukiko's ears a little. The sparkle is because the healing spells are purple, but I wanted to differentiate them from the other purples, and the Dia spells do sparkle a little, yeah? I least, I think I do. It's a tad difficult to tell from a Youtube video.**

 **Anyway,** ** _N, Y, or NY? VOTE NOW!_ If you would be so kind. Seriously, I want to start planning this as soon as possible, 'k?**


	7. Golden Week

**I was in the mood to do Chapter 13, at least more than Chapter 13 of my Naruto story, so, because I finished that, this is getting uploaded earlier than I originally thought.**

 **I GOT AN ANSWER! WOO! Honestly, I wasn't getting any answers to the one question I bother to ask that will affect the story. I'm wounded. (Sarcastic tone)**

 **But seriously, thank you Guest 'Derek'. (Good to know that you enjoy Igor's personality.)**

 **I will no longer ask the question of N, Y, or NY, but if anyone wants to tell me what exactly you think of it, screw off! Not really. Please don't leave me! Um, but you can tell me what you want, just expect that you get NY anyway.**

* * *

Chapter 7

(3rd) (Tuesday) (Golden Week-Day 1-Constitution Day)

Yu walked downstairs, finding Nanako watching TV, looking lonely. He was about to go say a kind good morning to her and offer to spend the day with her, but he heard the doorbell, so he headed over there first. Nanako, curious, got up to see who it was as well. Standing there was Chie, who asked, "Hey, you want to come with us to get have some fun? I mean, we have a week off, might as well have as much fun as possible, right?"

Yu nodded. "I guess that's true, but…" He trailed off and glanced back at Nanako, who didn't know Chie and was hiding behind him as a result. "I'm not going to abandon Nanako-chan. I'm not going to let her be alone, rotting her brain with the TV for a week."

Chie glanced at Nanako. "Why doesn't she come with us? Come on, we'll go wherever you want!"

Nanako looked up at Yu in worry. "Don't worry, she won't bite," Yu assured her. "Come on, my friends are a hoot. Depending on how you look at it, that can be considered a bad thing… but I don't really think of it as such."

"Yeah, and we're only going to Junes, it not like you're going to run the risk of getting buried alive," Chie said. Yu glared at her while Nanako took a step back. "Wrong thing to say?"

"Very much so, yes," Yu answered. Looking back to Nanako, he asked, "So, what do you say?"

Nanako thought for a second, and figured there was nothing to lose, besides her life, but…

Nanako nodded. Chie smiled and let out a whoop of joy.

* * *

(Junes)

At Junes, Chie, Yukiko, and Yosuke had gathered at their table, lightly joking around.

"Why did you come here of all places?" Yosuke asked. "I mean, if a teen wants to spend all day at this place, that's their choice, but why bring Nanako-chan here too?"

Nanako shrugged. "I actually love Junes, so I don't have a problem with it. We were going to go on a real trip somewhere, but Dad has to work on the days he said he'd have off, so there isn't much for me to do."

Yu sighed. "Yeah, apparently one of the younger guys got sick, so Dojima-san, his partner Adachi-san, and even Naoto-kun are all stuck working for the weekend because that case can't be left alone," he explained to the group.

"That must have been quite serious, then," Chie commented.

They looked over to Nanako, who seemed downcast. "We were going to have boxed lunches and everything," she muttered.

"You can make boxed lunches?" Yukiko asked in an attempt to push the conversation in a happier direction.

Nanako shook her head. "No, I can't. Yu-kun was going to do it."

"You can cook?" Chie asked, looking over to Yu. "Impressive. You know, I'm a pretty good cook. I think."

"You think?" Yosuke asked. "I don't like how that sounds."

"I don't think you would do any better!" Chie yelled.

"I doubt it would be any worse than what you could whip up," Yosuke muttered.

"Are you saying I'm a bad cook?! We'll have a cook off! I'll kick your butt!"

"Hey man, I don't cook, but I feel as though I'd beat you by a landslide."

Yukiko chuckled. "Probably."

"Yukiko, how could you betray me!?" Chie yelled, shocked.

Yukiko shrugged. "Sorry, Chie."

"Fine," Chie huffed. "We'll have a contest, and Nanako-chan can be the judge! I'll make something that will knock the socks off you!"

"Something tells me that won't be a good thing," Yosuke muttered.

Chie scowled and rephrased her words. "Fine, I'll make something that's on par with her mother's cooking."

"Um… My mom died when I was a baby, so that won't be hard," Nanako informed them.

Chie grimaced. "N-Nanako-chan! I'm sorry, I didn't know!"

"Don't worry about it. I got Dad, after all."

"Yeah, don't forget, you have your 'big bro,' too," Yosuke joked with a wink.

"'Big Bro'?" Nanako asked, mulling over the title for a moment. Then, with a smile, she said, "Yeah, big bro! Yu-kun is my big bro! You are one of the family, after all!"

Yu smiled warmly. "Yep, I guess I am. I guess that means I'll have to return to Inaba every chance I get after I leave, huh?"

"No duh," Chie said. "I mean, you can't just forget about us and never come to visit."

"Please, I could never forget about you if I tried," Yu informed them. Chie scowled at him in response to this.

The group spent a lot of time with Nanako, and finally, they left to go home, as it was getting late. After doing so, Nanako looked in the fridge, and pulled out a dried pickle, which looked like it was growing mold from the looks of it, throwing it on the counter. Why she didn't throw it in the trash was a mystery.

After they had dinner, when Nanako wasn't looking, Yu picked up the pickle and inspected it. Yep, it was definitely growing mold. A small voice in his mind, while snickering, as shocking as that was, told him he should eat it. Yu looked at the pickle in disgust, and the voice insisted, saying 'If you can eat that, you can do anything…'

Strangely, he believed the voice, and, in an act of stupidity that he would later regret, ate it whole. He gagged and knew then and there that he was mental for having a voice in his mind tell him to do that, crazy, or had a malicious spirit hanging out in his mind telling him to do stupid things. He could only hope that it was the middle option, because he already knew he was at least somewhat crazy.

Despite the fact that he just proved his courage (or stupidity), he felt incredibly sick as the moldy food dropped into his stomach. He muttered to Nanako a quick goodnight, and staggered upstairs, trying to not throw up. He dropped on his futon, fell asleep and proceeded to have a nightmare about moldy pickles chasing him around in an attempt to eat him.

* * *

(4th) (Wednesday) (Golden Week-Day 2-Nature Day)

After waking up and taking a shower, Yu felt that he needed to hang out with someone to get rid of the pickle nightmare.

Luckily, Yosuke called. "Yo, dude! You have anything planned? I was thinking we could take Nanako-chan out somewhere."

Yu smiled. "Yeah, that sounds great. It'll be good to keep her out of the house."

Yu hung up and went downstairs. "Hey Nanako!" He called out. "Want to go hang out with some of my friends again today?"

Nanako jumped up. "Yeah! They were a lot of fun yesterday!"

Yu chuckled. "I'm surprised. A lot of people can't stand teenagers."

* * *

(Junes)

"I don't understand why Nanako-chan loves Junes so much," Yosuke commented as they walked through the store. "I mean, I asked her where she wanted to go, and she yelled, 'Junes, Junes!' I guess I shouldn't be complaining, but seriously, she needs to get out more."

"Well, the jingle is catchy, and it's kid-friendly," Yu answered. "It's not like she knows the wonders of the world or anything. She's a kid that's easily amused, and probably has to be in order to deal with her father's constant absence."

"That feels a little too deep, dude," Yosuke commented.

Yu shrugged. "Whatever," he muttered. Looking around, he realized Nanako was no longer in his sights. "Nanako?"

Yosuke looked around. "Shit! We lost her!" He said, slightly panicked.

"Don't panic yet," Yu told him. "Nanako!" He called out.

"Over here, big bro!" Nanako called out a good distance away.

Yu smiled. "See?" They walked over to where she was. There, they found her engaged in a light conversation with Naoto. "Oh, morning," Yu greeted.

Naoto looked up at them. "Morning. I have to get some things for Dojima-san, but I saw Nanako-chan and decided to stop for a moment."

"Oh? What does he need?" Yosuke asked.

"Let's see, pencils, a pen, a pencil sharpener…"

"Why?" Yu dared to ask.

"He's broken a number of pencils in frustration, so he wants a pen, but because he normally prefers a pencil, he needs more of those. As for the sharpener, he somehow jammed the one we currently have, and no one can figure out how to fix it without dismantling it entirely," she informed him almost casually and without hesitation.

Yosuke gaped at her. "Seriously? How do you even do that?"

Naoto shrugged. "Do I look like I know? If I did, then it would have been fixed already."

"I think he needs a break," Yu commented. "If he's broken enough pencils to have to request a pen, then… Wait, what happened to the other pens?"

"Out of ink. We didn't have a lot lying around to begin with, and then the few that we have magically all run dry at the same time."

"Sounds like a nightmare," Yosuke muttered.

"It is," Naoto groaned.

"So, let me guess. You're here, talking to us, mostly because you're stalling because you have no desire to return," Yu guessed.

"As much as I hate to admit it, yes I am," Naoto replied, slightly embarrassed. "Though, now that you bring it up, I get a bad feeling that Dojima-san will have my head if I don't return soon."

"Let's bring Nanako-chan over there for a surprise visit then," Yosuke suggested. "Maybe he'll loosen up a little then."

Nanako, who had been silent up until this point, suddenly piped up. "You mean we can go see Dad?!"

Yu smiled at her. "Sure we can."

Nanako let out a small whoop of joy. And so, after procuring the requested items, the four made their way to the station.

There, Dojima was pleasantly surprised to see his child. After setting the bag of items down, Naoto explained to Dojima. "I met them at Junes, and Yosuke-senpai said that Nanako should come by for a visit."

Dojima nodded. "Good. Did you get everything?"

"With any particular luck, I did."

Dojima looked in the bag and smiled. "Good, you did. I wonder if I can keep you instead of Adachi…?"

"I don't think Adachi-san would take too kindly to that."

Dojima frowned. "Then he'd better get his ass in gear. I wonder where he is though. Is it that hard to get us some lunch?"

"Isn't it a little early for lunch?" Yosuke asked. "It's only 10."

"It is, but every time that I send Adachi at the normal time, he comes back an hour later, saying that every place he went to was flooded, so he had to wait a long time. I doubted it, but I sent him at an earlier time today in an attempt to avoid that if he was being truthful. He still isn't back, and it's been an hour and a half!" Dojima growled, annoyed.

"Amusingly enough, he constantly complains about not being trusted with anything and is always given the lame jobs," Naoto added. "And he wonders why."

"Have you told him?" Yu asked.

"No, because if he can't figure it out, then he shouldn't even be in this line of business," Dojima told him. "As a matter of fact, he shouldn't be working at all. If you can't be punctual, you're going to get fired."

"Why haven't you fired him yet, then?" Yosuke asked.

"The higher ups believe he has potential. I do too. He just lacks the motivation. Anyway, we have to get back to work. If you spot Adachi, slap him for me."

"Will do," Yu assured him.

The rest of the day was spent wandering the town. At one point, they did spot Adachi.

Walking over to him, Yu called out, "Yo, Adachi-san!"

Adachi stopped and turned to look at them. He didn't have anything with him. "Ah, you guys. What're you doing?"

"Just wandering the town. You know, Dojima-san's getting annoyed at you. Did you get the lunch he asked for?"

Adachi froze. "Shit!" He swore.

"Watch it, Nanako-chan's right here!" Yosuke scolded.

"I take it you never got lunch?" Yu asked.

"Nope," Adachi answered sheepishly.

Yu frowned and proceeded to slap him.

"Ow!" Adachi exclaimed. "The hell was that for?!"

"Dojima-san told me to do that if I spotted you. You'd better get the lunch for them and come up with one damn good excuse."

Adachi sighed. "I'd better get going, then." Disheartened, Adachi took his leave to go find something from Junes that would suffice for his two partners.

* * *

(At night…)

With Dojima gone, and Nanako staring at her quiz show with amazing, but almost unnatural interest, Yu was left to wander the town, admiring its night-time beauty.

Eventually, he found the general store, which had been transformed into a bar. With nothing better to do, he shrugged and walked inside.

"What are you doing here, kid?" The owner asked.

As Yu was about to respond, he felt something crawling on his leg. Looking down, he picked a bug off. "You have some bugs," he stated, holding the insect up.

Before the owner could reply, the fish in a tank in the side of the way started darting around, eyeing the bug. "Normally I would kick you out, but you can stay, and even work a little if you give my Akihiko that bug that he wants so much."

Yu shrugged. He didn't have any reason not to, so he dropped the creature inside the tank. He watched as it struggled a little, before the fish darted forward, opening its mouth, releasing a fishhook that was inside, and gulped down the poor insect. Yu pulled out the fishhook. "Why did he have this in his mouth?"

The owner gasped. "Oh dear, I can't believe that he had that! Take it with you, he shouldn't have it, and I don't have any use for it."

Yu thanked the lady, and asked her, "So, can I work now?"

The woman shrugged and ushered him behind the counter. He was put in front of the sink and told to clean the dirty dishes. He finished after a couple minutes, and then was told, "Alright, go tend to one of the men for me, dear."

Yu walked over to the man to the far right and listened to him ramble for a second incoherently. The man handed him his glass and muttered something that made no sense, getting up and leaving. Yu wasn't sure what do for the poor guy as he stumbled out of the store, so he just turned around and cleaned the glass.

With that done, he looked to the clock, finding that it was much later than he wanted to be out, and told the owner, "I should get going."

The woman smiled and told him, "Thank you dear. Come back anytime that you have some free time in the night. We are always open." She then paid him 3,000 yen, and he left, slipping into the house quietly, finding that Nanako had already gone to bed.

* * *

(5th) (Thursday) (Golden Week-Day 3-Children's Day)

Yu felt that he was way too bored when he woke up that morning. He thought over the locations that he hardly went to and decided to go to the train station. Over there, he bought a soda, before sighing.

"There isn't anything to do here. Maybe that gas station attendant was right. I need to get a job." He started walking home, passing by the entrance to the town's shrine. Considering the fact that he had nothing better to do, he walked in. It was almost a complete dump though, and it was rusting in plenty of places. It was pretty obvious why no one ever mentioned it. "Maybe if I ever get enough money, I will fix this place up a little," he told himself.

As Yu turned to leave, he heard a howl of a fox, and he spun around in shock, only to see nothing, but there was now a breeze on top of his normally covered head. Confused, he turned around again to see a fox with a red apron that held his hat in its mouth. It dropped the hat as if saying, 'Sorry, just wanted your attention.' It then ran away, coming back as a befuddled Yu finished putting his hat back on. It held an ema in its mouth, and seemed to be holding it out to the human. Yu reached out and grabbed the ema, and the fox willingly let go. On it said, 'Please heal grandpa's legs.' Attached to the back by unknown means was a leaf.

As Yu inspected the leaf, wondering why it was there, and how it had been stuck to the back of the ema, as well as wondering what reason the fox had for giving it to him, an old man came up, grumbling about his leg pain.

Yu raised an eyebrow at this, wondering why the old man was here, considering how the area was a complete dump. He turned around to look at him and muttered a hello. While he was midway into performing the act, the old man snatched the leaf from his hand.

He gazed at it in amazement, while Yu stared, dumbfounded. "This leaf is rare!" He informed Yu. "It's said to hold magic healing abilities. Young man, may I have this?"

Yu shrugged. "I don't need it. Keep it."

The man smiled happily and sat down, and put the leaf against his leg. He let out a sigh of relief, and then jumped up, apparently reenergized. Still smiling, he made his way to the offering box and dumped a rather large amount in. He turned around and skipped merrily away.

Though he was somewhat disturbed by the display, Yu forced his attention to the offering box. He looked inside to find that besides with the large amount the old man dumped in, there was only a meager amount of yen. He frowned. "I knew that this town was small, but shouldn't there be more offerings than this?"

The fox came back out of the place that it had hidden itself in, and Yu asked it, "Hey, do you have any more of those leaves?"

In response, the fox nodded. It let out various yips. Strangely, Yu felt like he understood some of it.

"You're… offering the leaves to us?"

The fox seemed to shrug, letting out another yip.

"You want me to pay?" Yu asked, appalled. "Why should I?"

The fox let out more yips, running around the area, specifically to every part of the shrine that was rusted or in serious need of a power-washing.

"You want me to pay, so you can get the money to fix the shrine?" Yu guessed.

The fox looked pleased that it got the message across.

Yu smiled. "How can I say no? Though I have to wonder how you know of my team's antics. Sure, you can offer your services, and I will happily pay, so long as the price isn't too steep."

The fox let out more yips and barks.

Yu frowned. "200,000 yen for one leaf?" He asked, not stopping to wonder how he got a boat load of money out of an animal's barks.

The fox nodded.

"Fuck that noise! I don't care how rare they are, that's too steep! It would cost 200,000 yen to fix this place up, then after it was fixed, you'd continue to charge that much! Does it look like I'm rich? I came here with 1,000 yen total!"

The fox growled, but lowered the price.

"Really? _Only_ 190,000? What a steal," he muttered sarcastically.

For the better part of the next hour, Yu negotiated with the fox, finally knocking it down to 100,000 a leaf. The fox refused to go lower. Yu rolled his eyes and muttered, "Yeah, sure, I'm totally going to drop 400,000 almost every time I have to go save someone from getting killed by a TV."

The fox stared at him in annoyance, and finally ran over to where the emas lay in wait. Various yips and barks later, and Yu said, "I'll get a discount for the more people that I get to put offerings in the box?"

The fox nodded.

"Sweet! I'll get on that shit then!"

The fox, in response to this, let out a small, gleeful howl. It ran and got the next ema, saying that it was a girl that wanted her love life to go smoothly. Yu stared at it and laughed silently to himself, 'This is going to be impossible.'

* * *

(At night…)

While eating dinner, the front door opened. Yu and Nanako glanced over there and saw Dojima taking off his shoes.

"Dad!" Nanako cried happily, jumping up to go hug him.

Dojima smiled. "Good evening, Nanako. How was your day?"

"Long and boring," she answered. What about you?"

Dojima sighed. "Same. I can't wait for that rookie to stop calling in sick. It's really starting to wear me down. Adachi's slacking even more, which in turn is putting even more stress on Naoto and I." Turning to Yu, he asked, "So, how was yours?"

"It started off more boring than usual. Then I went to the shrine…"

"You went to the shrine? Why?" Dojima asked.

"Well, it certainly isn't a happening spot, but I figured it would keep me entertained for a minute or two." Yu laughed. "I found that it was a complete dump, so I was going to leave, but then a fox popped up out of nowhere and stole my hat!" Nanako let out an excited shriek and sat down, gazing at Yu with interest. Dojima, curious, sat down as well, awaiting the next part of the story. "After returning my hat, it ran off and later returned with an ema. It gave it to me, and I was just left there to stare at it. Next thing I know, some old man's there, asking to keep a leaf that had been stuck to the back of it. Dude put it on his leg and suddenly had the energy of a 5 year old on a sugar rush."

"A magic leaf?" Dojima asked. "I heard that someone found some lying around the shrine, but he could never find the source."

Yu shrugged. "Well, the fox found it. It's offering me to use them, at a price of 100,000 yen per leaf."

Dojima, who had been sipping what was probably coffee he had gotten at work that had long since gone cold, nearly choked. "O-one hundred thousand?!" He exclaimed.

Yu laughed. "Funny thing is, that's half the original offer. The fox insisted on 200,000 to begin with."

Dojima, apparently having not learned his lesson, again nearly choked on his cold coffee. "Where does it expect you to get that kind of money?!"

Yu shrugged. "I don't know. Apparently, though, I can lower the price by making sure emas are fulfilled."

"Why would you even need one of those?!" Dojima almost shrieked.

Yu laughed silently to himself. "I don't know," he lied. "Anyway, I spent nearly an hour trying to get the fox to lower the price to a somewhat acceptable amount. It refused to go lower than 100,000, despite that with the purchase of four leaves would give the shrine enough money to replace nearly every part of it with glittering, high quality, pure gold."

"That's exaggerating a bit, but… yeah, that's a tad extreme," Dojima commented. "Anyway, how could you figure out how much the fox was offering?"

Yu paused. "I don't know… Lucky guess?"

Dojima frowned. "So, you negotiated with a fox for magic leaves through lucky guesses on what it was saying?"

Yu laughed. "When you say it like that, I sound crazy!"

"You are crazy," Dojima shot back.

Yu pouted. "Well now, brutal."

Dojima laughed.

"Oh, is that a Junes bag?" Nanako asked abruptly, having just noticed the bag that Dojima had brought in with him.

Dojima smiled. "Yes it is. I nearly forgot about it because of Yu's strange story."

Dojima reached inside the bag and produced an orange shirt with platypus. He handed it to Nanako. "I know I couldn't take you on a trip for Golden Week, and I'm sorry about it. It's Children's Day today, too, so I got you this. I hope you like it."

Nanako smiled happily and hugged her dad. "It's great, Dad!"

"Good," Dojima said with a smile. Reaching into the bag again, he pulled out swim trunks and handed them to Yu. "I know you aren't technically a child anymore, but legally you aren't an adult, and fair's fair. So here you go."

"Thanks," Yu said.

"I figured that you would need one eventually. Inaba doesn't have that many great swimming spots, but it does have a couple. Now then, what's for dinner? I'm starving."

* * *

 **And there you go. I'm determined to not make the next chapter until I finish the next Naruto chapter, but... that's 'eh' at best in all honesty. So... I don't know when the next one will be up. For now... have a good day, week, month, hopefully not year.**


	8. The Thunderstorm

**I'm really sorry. I finished Chapter 14, like, a week ago. I just forgot to upload Chapter 8 because I was done for the day, and then I forgot.**

 **I vaugely remember enjoying writing this chapter. So it's probably pretty good.**

 **Ah, yes, part of it was the opening scene, and also because I wrote the thunderstorm scene when it was pouring down rain to the point where I swear more than half the state was flooded. It's days like those where I'm damn glad I live on a mountain.**

* * *

Chapter 8

(6th) (Friday)

After school let out, Yu, Yosuke, Chie, and Yukiko sat in a circle, all of them tired.

"Why did the holidays have to go so fast?" Chie asked.

"At least it was peaceful, right?" Yosuke asked. "You know, I got a chance to listen to the housewives, you know, the ones that gossip almost too much, and not once was there a mention of murder, death, kidnapping or destruction. It looks like everything's calming down. Though I did hear something about some teen that's been causing a ruckus recently. Or was it that a gang has been annoying people, and he's just getting annoyed at them…? I don't know, it was very unclear."

"That's good to hear," Yukiko said. "Not the teen supposedly annoying people. The lack of death and destruction on the housewives' gossip radar, I mean."

Chie nodded. "True. We shouldn't relax yet, but that's a good sign."

"We should check the Midnight Channel next time it rains, just to make sure," Yosuke said.

"I think it's going to start to get rainy soon," Chie commented. "Someone better not get thrown into the TV during next week though!"

"Why does it matter so much for next week?" Yu asked.

"Midterms," Chie muttered, almost as though she feared it more than the person throwing people in the TV.

"No…" Yosuke groaned as he was reminded. "NO! Not midterms!"

"It isn't that bad…" Yu commented.

"If you don't have Yukiko's gift for studying, it is," Chie complained. "Maybe we can get her to help us."

Yosuke brightened. "Yeah, that's right! Yukiko's always number 1 on every test. Maybe I can get some private lessons."

Yukiko, taking that as some sort of vulgar joke, slapped Yosuke, knocking him out of the chair he had been sitting on.

"OW!" Yosuke yelled. "What the hell was that for?! All I wanted was some help not failing 11th grade!"

Yukiko, realizing her mistake, said, "Oh, I'm sorry Yosuke-kun. There have been some real oddballs at the inn lately, so I thought that might be an off-color joke."

"Why?" Yosuke groaned.

Unfortunately for him, Yu started to laugh at him. "You deserved that. 'Private lessons'? Really, Yosuke?" Yosuke just sat there, looking miserable. "I guess you don't need the help then, if you aren't willing to get up and try again."

* * *

(The Velvet Room)

On the way home, Yu decided to spend a bit of time at the Velvet Room for no apparent reason. Mostly, it was because he loved to bug the inhabitants. That was a boat load of fun for him.

"Oh, you're back," Margaret said with barely concealed 'excitement' at having their guest return. "Marie's gone on an errand, so you can't annoy us together today."

Yu sagged slightly, and said jokingly, "Damn, I was hoping she could amuse me again."

He turned to leave, much to Margaret's relief, when he saw a piece of paper on the ground. Picking it up, he was about to read it when Marie suddenly rammed him and knocked him over before stealing the paper, shoving it in her bag.

"You didn't read it, did you?!" She shrieked.

"No," Yu groaned.

"Good," Marie said happily, taking her place on the couch.

Margaret laughed lightly. "Let's start this meeting again." She cleared her throat. "Welcome back, Yu-kun."

"Welcome, my ass," Marie growled. "That was _way_ too close."

Yu, no longer wanting to be around the Velvet Room inhabitants, proceeded to leave, to Igor and Margaret's delight.

* * *

(7th) (Saturday)

*Crack-boom* went the thunder. This sounds like a child's storybook.

"The thunder is getting really loud," Yosuke commented.

Yu nodded his agreement.

"I don't like it," Chie informed them.

"Aw, calm down," Yosuke told her. "Does it make you feel any better to know that I've finally replaced that 'Trial of the Dragon' I broke?" He reached into his bag and produced the DVD.

"Oh, so you finally got it," Chie said, accepting the movie. "Thanks."

"Yeah, it's the 'Greatest Punches' version, and it was only 980 yen. If I had known that, I would have replaced it instead of buying you the steak, but what's done is done. No use complaining now. Just don't practically rob me of my money anymore."

"I'll try," Chie told him, putting the DVD in her bag. The thunder sounded again, this time sounding closer. Chie let out a small squeal of fear.

Yosuke laughed. "Calm down. It's highly unlikely that you'll get hit by one of those things. They mostly aim for the taller metal things, right?"

"There aren't that many tall, metal things out here that the lightning is more likely to strike."

"True, but as long as you're indoors, you can't get hurt, right? Just stay here until it's calmed down a bit."

"Who knows when it will pass, though?" Chie complained.

"I'll stay and keep you company, if you want," Yosuke offered.

Chie didn't get a chance to take him up on that offer, though, before there was another crash and boom, this one even louder than the last, causing her to jump out of her seat in fear and cling to the closest person to her. That happened to be Yosuke.

"That would be nice," she finally said after calming down and sitting down again.

Yosuke nodded. "Good. Maybe we can get a little studying in."

"I thought you had work today," Yu said.

Yosuke shrugged. "I technically do, but I'll stay if it keeps Chie calm. Plus, I _really_ need to study."

Yu chuckled. "Fair enough. Want me to join? I got nothing better to do."

Chie nodded. "The more the merrier, right? Plus, you'll actually know what you're doing with our work, so we won't have to pull out so many books in a desperate attempt at figuring out what's going on."

Suddenly, there was another crash. Once again, Chie leapt out of her seat and clung to Yosuke.

"Don't you think that you're doing that a bit too much?" Yosuke asked, looking around at the few students still hanging around the room, almost all of whom were staring at them with raised eyebrows. "At the rate this is going, everyone's going to start thinking that you like me."

Chie sat down again after a moment. "Yeah, I probably am, but do I look like I care at the moment?"

There was a fourth crash, this one the loudest of them all, and the room went dark. With the sudden lack of light, Yu couldn't tell if Chie ended up clinging to Yosuke for a third time. Some of the other people in the room let out small shrieks, while the braver kids that weren't fazed tried to calm down the more nervous ones.

"Fuck," Yosuke groaned.

"Yeah, this is a pain," Yu agreed.

"No, you don't get it," Yosuke said. "If the power went out in Junes, that'll mean that the produce section went out. That'll mean that I'll have to go over there to close down that sector."

"So?" Yukiko asked.

"So, I won't get to study, nor hang with my friends, and I'll get very little pay out of it as well. I don't win at all if that happens."

"Plus, you could get struck by lightning on the way," Yu joked.

"Don't say that, you might jinx me."

"Only if you say there's no way in hell that'll happen."

"It's probably more likely than the chances that'll strike you."

"Yeah. I bet even the lightning thinks I'm too sexy to strike."

"Um… that's one way to put it…"

A phone rang. Yu pulled his out, and found that it wasn't his. His friends checked theirs as well, and Yosuke was the one to turn away from his companions and hold his to his ear.

"Hello?" He answered.

"Hanamura-san, the manager needs me to tell you the power's been knocked out down here. We have to close down the produce section early," a young female on the other end told him.

Yosuke groaned. "Just as I feared. I'll be over soon." He sighed heavily as he hung up. "Well, shit," he said as turned back to his friends. "And I was really hoping to do something actually worth my time."

Yukiko suddenly came up with an idea. "Oh, Chie, do you know this story? So a girl forgot some super important homework at school, so she snuck into the school after dark. Suddenly, she had to go to the bathroom, so she made her way there, where all the lights were off and no one should be there, but in the mirror, she saw-"

Chie cut her off. "No, do not start telling a ghost story! Why the hell did you think that was a good idea?!" Chie yelled.

"Are you afraid of them?" Yu asked.

"Very much so!" Chie admitted. "They're way too creepy. I don't do well with creepy."

"I can tell," Yu said.

"Aw, it's alright Chie. Just kick her if she starts again. You wouldn't mind, right, Yukiko-chan?" Yosuke asked.

"If Chie kicked me?" Yukiko asked.

"If Chie kicked you, whenever you freak her out," Yosuke corrected.

"I would prefer not to do that," Chie told him.

"Suit yourself. Since I have to go, want me to accompany you part way home?"

Chie sighed. "Fine, I guess it's better than listening to Yukiko's ghost stories."

"I thought you liked ghost stories," Yukiko commented.

"Whatever gave you that idea?" Chie almost screeched. "I'm terrified of them! I always have been!"

"Huh, never noticed," Yukiko said.

Though it was very dark, Yu's eyes had adjusted to the point where he thought he could see Chie's eye twitch. "HOW?!"

"If you're as oblivious as Yukiko-chan, you'll miss a lot of things," Yosuke said. "Ever notice that she never realizes it when someone asks her out?"

"People ask me out?"

"I think everyone but Yu has, and quite frankly, I'm shocked he hasn't. Speaking of which, why haven't you?"

Yu shrugged. "I'm not aiming for love at the moment."

"But you have so much free time to dedicate to anyone that you choose, and there are plenty of good looking girls. There are even a couple smart ones scattered about, so you can't say that you're looking for one that's smart rather than good looking."

"I'm just looking someone that clicks with me, alright? Shouldn't you be going now?"

Yosuke sighed. "Yeah, I do need to go. Bye."

Yosuke gathered his stuff and moved for the door, Chie following. Before they left, the door opened and Naoto came in.

"Why are you at the school?" Yosuke asked.

"I enrolled in this school a while ago, Yosuke-kun. I talked to you after you got your… you know," she gestured out 'ears,' looking absolutely ridiculous while doing so, because of the other students.

"Huh, that you did."

"And you call Yukiko oblivious," Yu said.

"S-shut up!" Yosuke yelled before pushing his way through the door and hurrying onward, Chie following a moment later.

"So… what are you doing up here?" Yu asked.

"I came to see how you were doing," she told them.

Yu stared at her blandly. "The lights turned off and you freaked out," he guessed.

"What?" Naoto asked, shocked, but mostly confused at his reply. "No. What gave you that idea?"

"Why else would you come here?" Yu asked.

"When you put it that way, I guess it makes sense. But, no, you're wrong, Yu-kun. If I was afraid of the dark, I wouldn't have dared to approach you that night when I found you lying by the river bank."

"So why are you actually here?"

Naoto shrugged. "I got bored. With the storm outside, I don't want to go out."

"So you're just going to stay here?" Yukiko asked.

"Until either the storm dies down or I determine that it won't for the rest of the day."

"What do you plan to do?" Yu asked.

"Hang out with one of you two, or if you don't want my company, then I'll find a good book to read in the library."

Yu nodded. "Yeah, you can stay. Besides, the power's out. How could you read a book without night vision or a portable light that I don't believe you have?" He looked out the window and frowned as there was another crash of thunder and lightning. "I hope Nanako got back home alright."

"The storm only got bad an hour ago," Naoto informed him. "She should have been let out early enough to not get caught in it. Even if something did happen to her, the storm shouldn't last through the rest of the day."

"I bet a lot of places will be flooded," Yukiko commented.

"Probably. I wonder when the power will be fixed? It's starting to hurt my eyes trying to make anything out that isn't a simple silhouette," Yu said.

"Who knows? I doubt anyone's willing to deal with it in this weather. We'll probably just have to wait until the end of the day," Yukiko said.

"Well, in that case, I'm just going to go home. No point sitting here in the dark. I'll probably fall asleep," Yu said, getting up.

"At least you wouldn't be late tomorrow," Yukiko joked.

"I guess that's true, but I'd have a serious crick in my neck from sleeping at my desk."

"You could always spread out on King Moron's desk."

"And risk getting an earful from him _and_ have the possibility of knocking off my hat in my sleep, therefore showing my…" he paused, trying to come up with a decent replacement to 'ears, "uh, 'messy hair' to the world? I would prefer to not do that."

"True, I didn't think about that."

"Clearly," Yu said with a laugh, picking up his bag and making sure all of his materials were safely stored inside. After closing it back up and tucking it under his arm, he turned to his two companions. "Want to come with me?" He offered.

The two girls nodded and got up.

"I don't think it's going to get any better for the next hour or so," Naoto commented. "I don't want to wait that long."

Before the group got to leave the room, the lights came back on, blinding everyone.

"Ah, that fucking burns!" Yu groaned.

"Yeah, that'll happen," Yukiko said with a frown as she slowly opened her eyes, which had snapped shut upon the bright light appearing to burn away at her eyeballs.

Down at the first floor, the three stared at the pouring rain.

"I wish I had rain boots," Yu said.

"You should stop by Junes and get some, then. Inaba's rarely _this_ bad, but it can get pretty messy sometimes," Yukiko said, pulling out of her shoe box a pair of boots. "I heard it was going to get pretty bad today, so I bothered to bring these. I'm glad I did." She put them on and retrieved her umbrella. "Ready?"

Yu finished switching to his outdoor shoes. "As ready as I'll ever be."

The three walked out of the school, and almost immediately stepped into an ankle-deep puddle that they thought wasn't nearly as deep. Yu and Naoto hopped out of it in shock while Yukiko, clad in her knee-high waterproof boots, happily stomped about, splashing the other two teens. The two couldn't help but laugh at their friend's joy, and grumble at the same time because she was soaking them.

After Yukiko was done splashing in the puddle, the three continued on. It took a minute, but Yu finally notice that Naoto lacked an umbrella, simply walking with her hands shoved in her pockets, carefully eyeing the road in front of them to avoid soaking her feet in a puddle again. Yu didn't blame her attention to the ground, as he was quite miserable walking around with the feeling of his feet being underwater. He swore that he was going to get home and remove his shoes and was going to dump out a small pond's worth of water from them. Turning his attention back to his friend, who was slowly getting soaked, he moved closer to her, holding his umbrella over her to protect her from the relentless rain. She looked up at him, almost as though confused.

"Is this one of the reasons you wanted the storm to die down first before leaving?" He asked.

"Yeah," she replied. "I actually came from an area that drizzles almost all the time, so I'm used to the rain. But when it's windy and cold and persistent like this, I prefer to stay out of it."

"Smart choice. Though you might want to get an umbrella, even if you don't mind the rain. Who knows how many more storms we'll have?"

"I was watching the news, and they said that it shouldn't get this bad again for a long time," Yukiko piped up. "Like I said, it's usually not this bad."

"Good," Naoto grumbled. "At least then, I won't have to be constantly staring at the ground so as to not soak my feet." Almost as if nature wanted to emphasis her point, the two, distracted by the conversation, stepped in another puddle, this one deeper than the initial one. Hopping out of it, she remarked, "Okay, that's just unfair."

Yu laughed. "Want to come with me to Junes to get some new socks and a pair of boots? You could stand to get some yourself."

Naoto nodded unhappily. "Fine."

Yu smiled and nodded. He turned to Yukiko, who had to go a different route to get home in a timely manner. "Have fun, and don't die," he told her.

"Don't… die?" Yukiko and Naoto questioned simultaneously.

Yu laughed. "Yeah. Isn't it something you should hope for? To not die?" The girls nodded. "There you go!"

The other teens shrugged, unable to come up with anything to say, so they let it drop. Yukiko left then, seemingly in a hurry, almost as though she was frightened that Yu was going to do something to her.

At Junes, Yu and Naoto both got socks and a pair of boots. They also got Naoto an umbrella. As soon as they found a bench, they sat down and removed their soaked footwear. Yu turned his shoes upside-down to see if there was actually any water in them. To his surprise, there was. The water from both of his shoes and Naoto's created a small puddle.

"Oops," Yu commented offhandedly.

"Yeah, oops," Naoto said, shoving her damp socks into a plastic bag and stealing her shoes back to put them in the same place, before putting on the new socks over her still slightly damp feet.

"What are you two doing?" Asked a familiar voice behind them.

The two teens turned to look at the newcomer, finding Adachi.

"Adachi-san?" Yu questioned. "What are you doing here?"

"Getting lunch for Dojima-san," he answered casually.

"It's four in the afternoon. Isn't it a bit late?"

"Shit, it's four!?"

"At least it isn't 7."

"Shit shit shit!" Adachi took off, running down to the nearest food place, no doubt.

Yu looked to Naoto, who watched the retreating back of Adachi, expressionless. "Does this happen often? You don't seem to care much."

"I have to hang around that guy all day for work, I've learned to tune out the vast majority of the crap he spews out," she replied, returning to her previous task.

"Ah, that's your secret," Yu said happily.

"What?"

"Well, you have to hang around a bunch of guys all the time that probably bug you. I've always wondered how you haven't strangled anyone yet."

"Ah, yes. That one, I actually haven't figured out myself. I don't tune them all out. Just Adachi-san."

"What if he has something important to say?"

Naoto looked up at him in shock. "Do you seriously think he has the capacity to have something of interest to say with his current level of motivation?"

Yu shrugged. "I don't know. I just know that he might, it's just that we have to find the right topic."

"Let me know when you find that. I'd love to hear it," Naoto said, putting on her new boots.

A phone rang. Yu pulled his out, and found that once again, it wasn't his. Naoto pulled her out and ended up answering. "What is it, Dojima-san?" She asked.

"Have you seen Adachi anywhere?" The tired and annoyed voice answered.

"Yes, actually, I have. He's at Junes, apparently getting your lunch."

"He… my lunch?" Dojima asked incredulously. "Y-you're kidding, right? It's four."

"We realized that. Yu-kun informed him of this, and he ran away saying, and I quote, 'Shit shit shit!'"

Dojima was silent for so long that Naoto started to wonder if he was still there. "Dojima-san?"

"Yeah?"

"Um… is that all you need from me?"

"Do you think you can find Adachi and drag him back to the station for me?"

"Am I getting paid overtime for this and the numerous other various small errands you've sent me on during my time off?"

"Yeah, I probably need to make sure you get that, huh? I'll do that as soon as you get Adachi's ass back here, alright?"

"I'll get right on that." Naoto hung up.

"'Numerous other small errands'?" Yu asked.

"Yeah. Does it really come off as a surprise by this point?"

"Sadly, no, not really."

Picking up her bag, Naoto said, "Exactly. Now then, I have to go get Adachi-san and drag him back to the station. Have a good day, Yu-kun."

"Don't die," Yu replied helpfully.

Naoto chuckled. "I'll try."

Yu walked down the street, no longer bothering to watch the ground for any puddles with his new boots. Seeing a sign he wasn't accustomed to seeing out on the street, he stopped for a moment and focused his attention there. "The MEGA BEEF BOWL?" He asked himself.

"You haven't heard of it?" Asked a man that happened to be passing by. "You're that transfer student everyone was raving about for a while, huh? The MBB is one of Inaba's few attractions besides the Amagi Inn. You get it for free if you can eat it all. However, you require understanding to accept it as a whole, knowledge to set the proper pace, courage to attack the mountain of meat and dedication to keep on eating."

"Wha…?"

"They actually say that because no one's beaten the challenge, and so a lot of people joke that you have to meet specific requirements first. It's not called the Mega Beef Bowl for nothing, after all. Most teens shout that they can take it on. They definitely have the courage and dedication, but they lack the knowledge and understanding. They can't even get halfway."

"How much does it cost if you can't beat the challenge?"

"3,000 yen," the man answered casually.

"Shit!" Yu couldn't help but exclaim. "Why that high?"

The man shrugged. "Motivation? Anyway, I must be off. Try it out sometime, though. It certainly isn't healthy, but it's definitely worth the high price. Just… try it when you haven't eaten in a week or so." The man turned and continued on his way.

Yu looked back at the sign. Thinking about a nice bowl of endless meat made his stomach growl. "Oh, I am so having that," he muttered, and walked inside the building.

Inside, he fearlessly ordered the bowl. Everyone stared at him in shock. He heard whispers all around him. At least one person muttered, "He's going to get his ass kicked."

True to that person's word, he did get his ass kicked. When he got the bowl, he smiled and happily dug in, eating slowly and carefully. What he hoped was at least one-third of the way, but was probably only an eighth, into it, he started to feel sick.

"Called it," that one person whispered to her friend.

"I can't believe it. I thought it wasn't this bad," Yu muttered to himself.

"They call it the _Mega_ Beef Bowl for a reason," the owner's daughter, who worked part-time, told him.

"I realized that."

"I take it you're done."

"Yeah."

"That'll be 3,000 yen, please."

"Shit."

When Yu got home, he found that Nanako was safe. Happy, semi-warm, full and slightly sick, Yu decided to skip dinner and simply watch TV and read his book until his uncle got home, who looked like he caught a cold.

Yu raised an eyebrow at this, but his uncle waved it off, saying that it should pass.

"Hey, um, Yu, do you hang out a Junes a whole lot?" Dojima asked him before he could go upstairs to go to bed.

"Why do you ask? Is there some dangerous criminal suspected of hiding out there, so you want me to stay away?" Yu asked sarcastically.

"You would love that, wouldn't you?" Dojima questioned him, raising an eyebrow. "No, the only one that I want to stay away from that place is Adachi, I think he might be hanging out there, and shirking his duties."

"Why are you just now telling me this? I was there after school with Naoto-kun. I was the one to tell him it was 4. Tell you what, I will head over there every here and there, and I will make him get up off his lazy ass if he's sitting on it. Does that satisfy you?" Yu said, getting a chuckle from his uncle.

"Yes, it will. Just make sure to actually do it, I don't want to have to give Naoto permission to slap you both around to the point whereas you'll be afraid to talk to her for the rest of the year. And yes, I will allow that."

Yu cringed upon hearing this. His friend was small, but he didn't want to be on the receiving end of any form of punishment that she would deal out. Especially since she had a gun. He didn't figure she would use it, but it still didn't sit well with him. He didn't think it could be that bad, but one way or another, he didn't want to end up on her shit list. He was already on King Moron's.

"Sure, fine, I won't slack off with him. Happy?"

"Very."

"Good, can I go to bed now?"

"Sure, have a good night."

* * *

 **'Don't die' is practically my catchphrase. I don't know why I started saying it, but... I do.**

 **I've also recently started adding on 'of your own stupidity' because in Language Arts a week or so ago, me and three other classmates had to create our perfect utopia. Mine is basically to be around nature and animals and whateveryou, and have few real responsibilities. One of my friends just didn't care, and another, who I don't actually know all that well, had a relatively similar idea. Finally, my best friend in that class, and probably in school as a whole, Lily, had an amplified version of that. So, our utopia would be a foresty place, with a house that can support 5 or 6 people (some would sleep on the couch or in the attic) and our rules would be to gather our own damn food, something else in the same vein that I can't currently remember, and finally 'Don't die of your own stupidity,' at my recommendation. Lily named it 'Into the Wild' or something weird. We would have a dictatorship, with Lily at the helm, because for some stupid reason we all trust she could handle the position.**


	9. In Which Everything Of Interest Happens

**Originally, these were going to be with Chapter 8. I finished revising all the days… and found it got to 8,352 words. That's fucking amazing, but I generally try to keep my chapters about 3,000 to 4,000, no more than 5,000 words long so reading isn't tedious.**

 **I'm sorry, I've withheld this long enough. I haven't finished writing up Chapter 15 like I planned, but A) I really just need to tell you guys I'm not dead (yet) and B) It's my birthday tomorrow! So I figured I'd celebrate with y'all a tad early in case I can't tomorrow and upload a chapter for this and hopefully all of my other ongoing stories.**

* * *

Chapter 9

(8th) (Sunday)

Yu got a call from Chie asking to hang out. Having nothing better to do, he accepted. That morning, he spent his time talking to her, doing nothing in particular besides showing her that he could kick a tree and accidently knock a squirrel out of it, which froze on the ground in shock until Yu hesitantly poked it with his foot. When he did that, the poor creature jumped up, hauling ass to a tree a fair distance away. 'Oops' was all he had to say on the matter.

When Yu got home, he found Nanako looking distraught at the table. "Hey there Nanako-chan, what's wrong?" Yu asked his cousin as he sat down beside her.

"We had to make origami flowers in school today," Nanako replied sadly.

Yu looked at the flowers. They were a little awkward in Yu's opinion, but he made origami for a living at the moment, so he figured he shouldn't comment. "What's wrong then? They look good."

Nanako shook her head. "No, no, it isn't that. My problem is they are for our mothers for Mother's Day. But," Nanako hesitated, "I don't have a mom to give them too."

Yu stared sadly at his cousin. Then, he had an idea. With a smile, he told her, "Of course you have a mom to give them too."

Nanako looked at him with eyes that had a little hope in them. "Really, but how? My mom is dead."

"Maybe physically, but she is still alive in spirit, right? We can place them at the family altar, and to her, it will be just like you handing them to her."

Nanako brighten up, and said, "Then you have to make some as well, big bro! You're part of the family now, so you have to!" Yu smiled and happily obliged.

When Dojima came home, he saw the flowers, and upon realizing why they were there, smiled. He also noted that Yu had made some, judging by the fact that it was made with more trained hands for the art.

Before going to bed, he stopped to thank Yu, who told him, "I'm not just going to let her mope around, you know."

Dojima chuckled. "I guess not. Thanks, though." And then he sneezed.

"Uncle?" Yu asked, worried.

Dojima waved it off like he had the other day. "I guess Adachi's talking crap about me somewhere. Don't worry about it."

Yu raised an eyebrow and said, "Sure…"

* * *

(9th) (Monday)

'Mid-terms start today… What fun will await me when I get to school?' Yu thought sarcastically as he walked down the road. He stopped after he spotted a little bundle of white that was mostly covered in mud. At least, that's what he thought it was…

Walking over, he gently poked it, and it jumped, running away. Yu realized that it was a stray dog, so he offered it some meat that he planned to have for lunch. The dog stared at him for a moment, before running over and stealing it quickly before retreating to a nearby tree; chewing on the morsel it had been given.

Yu got up, and walked away, hoping the best for the poor thing as he ran to school after he noticed that he only had two minutes before the first bell.

* * *

(Time skip) (12th) (Thursday)

Finally, mid-terms had ended, and Yu felt that he literally couldn't have done better. He hadn't studied at all, mainly because his uncle actually _had_ caught a cold and all of his free time throughout the week was divided between trying to get him to take his medicine, overly obsessively cleaning anything that was touched in a desperate attempt to not get sick himself, which seemed to be working, and relaxing, all the while blocking out some loud sounds that woke the family throughout the nights. The whole time, however, the answers flowed from his hand like a river. When the unfinished student's papers had been taken away, the group turned in their seats to speak to one another.

Yosuke got up and stretched, moving to better speak to his friends. "Finally," he groaned. "That lasted _forever_!"

Chie and Yukiko ignored him, discussing what they got for their answers. "So, about number 7…" Chie said. "What did you put down for what 'that' was referring to?"

"I said 'her sorrowful expression,'" Yukiko answered. "What about you?"

"Crap. I said 'the rice cakes on the top of the table.'"

"Is that what the story was about?"

"How do you even do that?" Yu asked, confused. "It was a multiple choice question, that wasn't even an option."

"I give up," Chie groaned unhappily, hanging her head.

"Geez, sounds like it's going to suck when grades are posted," Yosuke said with a laugh.

"You didn't do any better!" Chie shrieked.

The two knowledgeable teens shared a small laugh that they tried to hide before letting their two inattentive friends sulk.

"Did ya hear?" A student in the back of the class practically yelled. "A TV station's here filming!"

"About what?" Another student asked in a calmer voice.

"Apparently the biker gangs that have been annoying people. I hear they're coming to film mostly on that one dude that supposedly took over the biggest gang after beating them all down single-handedly."

"Dude, where… never mind, I don't want to know. So, are you ready for that blind date?" The two students calmed down, and the animal gang slowly stopped paying attention.

"Biker gangs?" Yukiko asked.

Chie nodded. "Yeah, you're too far out to hear them, but they make a lot of noise at night."

"I think I've managed to hear them a couple times," Yu commented.

"I hear there's a first-year that's been a real hellraiser," Yosuke added.

"I've heard of them," Yukiko said. "But I thought all of the first year students were against them."

"Where'd you hear that?" Yu asked.

"Do you know Tatsumi Textiles? I know the owner's son pretty well. I haven't seen him too much this past year, but I have run into him once, and he was muttering about 'murdering those damn bikers.' He's the only first-year I know that has any sort of 'tough' image that might appear in a biker gang."

"Huh," Yu muttered. "Well, I fear that that'll mean uncle'll be out of the house way too much for at least a week or so if those gangs don't stop. Course, he has to get over his cold first."

"Speaking of your uncle's cold…" called out a familiar voice. The group turned in their seats, except for Yosuke, who was standing, to see Naoto. "You need to make sure he stops coming to work."

Yu stared at her. "Has he been going to work while I'm at school?" He meant it as a joke, but nevertheless feared that she would confirm it.

"Apparently."

Yu's eye twitched. "Wha-? How? He can barely be bothered to get out of bed to go take a shit!" He groaned. Yosuke, wanting to help his friend, but unsure how, lightly pat him on the back. "How the hell did he even get sick to begin with? I'm going to seriously hurt whoever gave it to him!"

"Did he ever complain about the sick rookie?"

"Yes…"

"Dude apparently caught wind of the complaints and came into work while still sick. He was promptly sent home, but I have a feeling that's why. Back to Dojima-san, though, during school, I'm guessing that he's getting up and trying to work. He isn't doing anything productive and insists that he's fine, and I'd say half the workforce that's come into contact with him has been knocked out. As a matter of fact, I think half of the people that have just come close to his office space have caught it. I fear I might have."

Yu groaned. "Fucking hell."

"Now that you mention it," Chie piped up, "you do look a little pale."

"Yes, probably. I plan on not doing anything too extreme for a while in the hope that nothing bad happens. Now can you please go do something about it, Yu-kun?"

"Why me?"

"You've been hanging around him for the past week. I imagine you're either immune to your uncle's sickness, or you've obsessively cleaned everything that he touches to the point where the house is literally sparkling."

"Well, it's not literally sparkling, but the latter is otherwise correct."

"My point exactly. Now please do something before he infects the whole police force."

Yu groaned again. "Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"No one bothered to tell me. I go to work after school, obviously, so he's gone by the time I get there. Judging by what I've heard about how out of it he's been, it's a shocker he can tell when to leave so he can get home, change, and crawl into bed before Nanako-chan gets home."

"Shouldn't someone that can easily reach his caretaker tell said person that he's doing that?" Yosuke asked.

"You would think. Apparently Adachi-san was supposed to, but either he was being a lazy fuckwad like usual, or he was just that afraid that Dojima-san would lash out."

"Did you seriously just call one of your superiors a fuckwad?" Chie asked.

"Yes, I did, because he's hardly superior anymore, and I wonder why I bother with the honorific at this point."

Yu sighed and got up, packing up his stuff. "Quite frankly," he said angrily, shoving his calculator into a pocket, " _I'm_ tempted to drop the honorific. I don't care what my mother taught me." He grumbled angrily to himself.

"Maybe… he wanted to make sure you didn't skip school during midterms," Yukiko suggested.

"Unlikely. I doubt he knows midterms were going on," Yu muttered.

"No, he does," Naoto informed him. "He's asked me everyday how I think I did."

"That's actually an interesting subject. How do you think you did?" Chie asked.

Yosuke laughed, seemingly miserable as he said, "Can't do any worse than how Chie-chan and I did."

Naoto shrugged. "I didn't fail, I know that."

"That… doesn't tell us anything," Yosuke told her.

"Yes, it does. It tells you I didn't fail," Naoto replied with a blank expression.

"We aren't going to get a good answer from you, are we?"

Naoto sighed and rolled her eyes. "Let me put it this way, Yosuke-kun. I don't know how I did. I know I didn't fail, but where exactly I rank is still unknown, mostly because very few papers have actually been graded yet. Does that help?"

Yosuke paused before answering, unsure of what the consequences would be if he said 'no.' "…Sure."

"Glad I could answer your question," Naoto said with the same uncaring expression before turning her attention away.

"That was not a good straightforward answer I was hoping for," Yosuke grumbled.

"Did you say something, Yosuke-kun?" Naoto asked, briefly looking at him.

"No," Yosuke answered quickly.

"Very well then."

Yosuke sighed. "Fucking hell."

* * *

After arriving home, Yu called out to his uncle, who responded with, "Adachi, stop playing around at Junes and get my…" The voice died down.

Yu, somewhat confused, checked in his uncle's room and found that he was asleep. "Did he just sleep talk, or… yell, I guess?" Yu asked himself before going to check on Nanako. As per his instructions, she had remained a good 15 feet away from her father at all times and wore a face mask, just to make sure. As of that moment, she had yet to catch her father's illness.

After making sure that she was fine, Yu sat down on the couch and listened to the news drone on about nothing interesting until Nanako woke him, because he apparently fell asleep, to inform him that her father had woken and was muttering some really random things.

Yu groaned and got up, going over to his uncle and looking him dead in the eye. Dojima stared back.

"You've been going to work while I'm at school?" He asked with a nigh-murderous tone.

Dojima frowned. "I can do that if I damn well please."

"Uncle, that's not helping anything, you know. According to Naoto-kun, you've infected half the workforce."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"Fine, I'll stop."

"Good. By the way, if you have the energy to go to work, stop complaining about having to get up to take a shit."

That short exchange over with, Yu returned to his warm spot on the couch and fell asleep again while Nanako watched, somewhat confused.

* * *

(13th) (Friday)

While walking to school, Yu was joined by the dog that he had feed the day mid-terms began. Every day, he had fed the poor mutt some of his food, and slowly, it warmed up to him. Now it followed him on the way to school, though only after Yu fed it.

About an hour after school let out, Yu realized that they needed some cough medicine, and so he walked to Junes to get some. Rather unsurprisingly, just as Dojima had complained about a week or so prior, Adachi was hanging out there. Walking up to him, curious as to why he was there, Yu was about to call out to him, but Adachi noticed before he could, and said, "Hey there, Yu-kun, what are you doing here?"

Yu kept a blank face as he answered. "I'm here to get some medicine for Dojima. Aren't you supposed to be at work? If you're shirking your duties, I guess I'll have to drag you back. Someone has to do all the work, especially since apparently half the force is sick."

Adachi swore. "Please don't drag me off. No one will know. Besides, this is one of the few times I can be out during the day without Dojima-san looming over me like he'll rain down death if I don't manage to get his coffee."

Yu snorted. "Maybe you'd get more free time if you actually worked. Fine then, I'll hang out with you." Adachi brightened and thanked him. Yu only half-listened as he complained about work and how annoying it was.

After about 15 minutes, during which Yu nearly fell asleep standing up, the nearby door opened, and Naoto walked in. She sighed at Adachi and spoke, startling the half-asleep teen opposite her that had barely registered her appearance, if at all. "Are you kidding me, Adachi-san? One simple task, that's all. Honestly," she groaned. "And you wonder why you never get a raise."

Yu stiffened, recalling that he was supposed to _not_ hang around Adachi during his work hours, and that Naoto had permission to smack him around, while Adachi looked about ready knock her out and make a run for it. Suddenly, Adachi looked over, and hissed, "Quick, hide me!" and hid behind Yu, grabbing Naoto's wrist and pulling her next to Yu.

An innocent old lady walked by, and after the coast was clear, Adachi stepped out of the momentary cover. "Thanks, guys. That crazy old hag thinks I'm her son, who has the same first name. She constantly makes me food that I hate, and I've told her to stop, but she doesn't!"

"Adachi-san, why is that seriously what you're concerned about?" Naoto asked.

"What else would I be worried about?"

"Getting fired."

Adachi paused, and then sighed. "Fine, fine. I'll go back. Can I at least get some-"

Naoto didn't wait to hear the whole of his request. "No."

"Ugh. Brutal."

Naoto looked at Yu. "Normally, I'd tell Dojima-san about this when he's well enough to come back. But… I'm guessing taking care of him is torture enough. Just don't stop to talk to Adachi-san next time you catch him hanging out here. Why are you here, anyway?"

"I'm getting medicine. And stalling because I don't want to return," Yu answered.

"Very well then."

"Oh, sure, he gets to slack off," Adachi complained.

"Only because he's actually been working and deserves a moment of calm."

"Don't I get a moment of calm?"

"Nope."

"Didn't think so."

Yu returned home to find Dojima slouched on the couch, asleep while the news droned on. Laying the bag on the table, he moved his uncle into a more comfortable position and put a blanket over him.

Calling out to Nanako, who was in her room, reading probably, he started to obsessively clean the kitchen so they could make dinner. After he was done with that, he asked his cousin to cook dinner while he cleaned the house.

20 minutes later, Yu finally finished the vast majority of the downstairs, even cleaning the closet despite Nanako insisting that it was still clean from the last couple days that he cleaned it because Dojima never entered there. He went to go check on Nanako and found her putting the finishing touches on their dinner. Grabbing his plate and plopping down on his spot, he mindlessly stared at the TV as he stuck the food in his mouth. In his current tired state, it was pretty much tasteless.

There was a knock at the door that was left unnoticed. Nanako realized he wasn't going to get up, so she did so instead. She happily welcomed the person inside, saying, "Yeah, big bro's here. Maybe not mentally, but he's here."

The person then came over to Yu and tapped him on the shoulder. "Are you alright?"

Yu jumped, looking over to the person. Somewhat unsurprisingly, it was Naoto, who was looking at him with concern. "You looked a little dead on the inside back at Junes, so I decided to come check on you."

Yu smiled. "Thanks. With any particular luck, I should be able to last until I get home from school tomorrow."

"Just take tomorrow off. It's not like you have a perfect record you can spoil."

Yu chuckled. "True."

"So did you actually catch your uncle's cold, or are you just tired?"

"Probably both."

Yu turned his attention back to the TV, where a special had just come on. The overly dramatic title read, 'Biker gangs, in your neighborhood!'

"Isn't this what those guys back in school were talking about yesterday?" Yu asked.

"How should I know? I wasn't there."

The two quieted down when the narrator started talking. "We came down to the quiet town of Inaba to film the noisy bikers that had been keeping the residents up at night. Unfortunately, our encounter with them almost took a violent turn when an apparent leader almost attacked the crew."

The young teen was showed on the TV, with blond hair and a Yasogami high jacket with the Roman numeral for one, meaning he was a first year. His eyes were blurred out, but if you saw him on the streets, it would be obvious who it was. "What the hell are you punks looking at?!" He yelled angrily. "This ain't a show! Get bent!"

The camera crew ran away and the footage stopped. Despite this, it was obvious that the boy did not actually attempt to attack the crew.

"Oh, that special," Naoto muttered as it ended. "Yeah, I heard about that. They didn't really do anything interesting though. That wasn't even one of the leaders…"

"Who was it then?" Yu asked.

"Kanji Tatsumi. He's a first year that's apparently been beating up gangs since middle school because they all kept his mother up at night. His family runs the local textile shop, which I'm guessing is pretty close to where the gangs usually run around."

"Huh…" Yu muttered. "Yukiko-chan mentioned him, actually. She said that he was only first-year that had a 'tough' image, so she knew that none of the first-years were part of the bikers."

"How did she know he wasn't one?"

"Because she ran into him one day while he was muttering about 'murdering those damn bikers.'"

"Ah, alright."

Yu stood and stretched. He glanced at the clock. "How is it only 6?" He asked himself.

"It's probably because you didn't do that much."

Yu groaned and looked over at his uncle, who was still on the couch. He moved to drag him back to his room. He was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. He looked at Naoto, who told him, "I'll take care of him. You go to bed."

Yu frowned and opened his mouth to object, but paused in thought and finally agreed.

Naoto looked over at Nanako, who had been watching the whole time. "Nanako-chan, can you make sure your big bro gets to his room with dying?"

Nanako nodded and got up. "Alright, sis."

"Sis?" Yu and Naoto questioned at the same time.

Nanako nodded again. "Yeah. You're here enough, and whenever you're around, something interesting seems to happen."

"Not always," Naoto said.

"More often than not," Nanako replied.

Naoto shrugged. "Whatever you say. Now then, I think your brother's fallen asleep standing up. Quite shocking considering he was awake 5 seconds ago." She tapped him and he jumped awake. Somewhat embarrassed, he rushed to his room.

* * *

(14th) (Saturday)

"I wonder if the Midnight Channel will be on tonight?" Chie asked, watching the rain.

"I bet," Yosuke replied. He turned to their leader, saying, "Hey, what do you… He's asleep."

Chie glanced at Yu, who was indeed sleeping, his forehead planted on the desk. "How long has he been like this? I feel like he fell asleep earlier and never awakened."

"I sit behind him. I would have noticed," Yosuke said.

"You're all crazy," Yu said, lifting his head. "I fell asleep at the beginning of the period."

"Um, dude, are you alright?"

"Not at all. Why?"

"Um… Maybe you should go home."

"What did you think I was going to do?"

"Well…" Chie muttered. "If you don't completely crash when you get home, try to check the Midnight Channel. I don't know if anything interesting will be on, but it's best to check."

Yu nodded tiredly.

"Are you going to be able to get home without killing yourself?"

"No guarantees."

"Do you want one of us to come with you?"

"If you can."

Chie glanced at Yosuke. "I have work," he said. "Speaking of which, I need to go. If I do well today, I might get a raise. Bye." He walked out of the room.

She looked to Yukiko. "Same." She started to pack up her stuff.

Chie rolled her eyes and said sarcastically, "Geez, you two are just going to leave your poor friend? How cruel." She gently pat Yu on the back. So gently in fact that it was almost as if she was afraid he'd break if she touched him any harder. "Don't worry. I'll come with you, Yu-kun."

Yu nodded his thanks and let his head drop back onto the desk again. Chie sighed and grabbed his bag. Nothing had to be put away because he never took anything out. She lightly shook him until he responded, and then dragged him to his feet.

After getting down the stairs, Chie called out to Naoto, who was about to walk out the door. Upon seeing them, she muttered, "I knew I was forgetting something."

The three luckily managed to get to the Dojima residence without any casualties. Upon letting Yu flop onto the couch, at which point he fell unconscious instantly, Naoto said to Chie, "Hope you didn't have any plans today."

"You won't let me leave, will you?"

"Nope. Remember the discussion about Dojima-san being ill? Well, he still is, so we'll have to deal with that too."

"Aren't we going to get sick doing this?"

"Not if we obsessively clean everything. That's how Yu survived as long as he did."

"'Obsessively clean?' Have you seen my room?"

"No, and quite frankly, I don't want to. You just need to be a neat freak for a couple hours, Chie-chan, it shouldn't be that difficult. Just wash your hands often and if Yu-kun or Dojima-san touches anything, clean it."

"With what? And how do you know Yu just didn't get a lot of sleep last night?"

"Please, I doubt he would awaken after falling into bed last night. He fell asleep standing up yesterday. As for what we're going to be cleaning with, I'm going to go find that. Make sure Yu-kun doesn't die in that time." Naoto turned and left to search and say hello to Nanako.

"This is going to be fun, isn't it?" Chie asked herself sarcastically as she stared at Yu, who was lying face down on the couch.

* * *

Yu briefly woke around midnight. He felt much better, so when the Midnight Channel turned on, he bothered to drag himself out of bed to check it out. That, and he had to change. It wasn't that surprising that the girls wouldn't try to change his clothes for him.

Standing there was very clearly Kanji Tatsumi. With a shrug, he returned to his warm bed.

* * *

 **(Whether this actually happens or not is up to you.)**

Naoto returned to the living room, cleaning supplies in hand, with Nanako in tow. The two of them weren't sure whether to be surprised or not to find that Yu had rolled off the couch somehow and Chie was attempting to pull him back up.

After setting the supplies down, Naoto helped her and they got Yu back into his room. With him out like a light and not seeming to need anything, the two girls went downstairs and prepared to clean everything that might have been touched by the sick Dojima throughout the day. It wasn't likely that he got up out of bed too much, but for a week he did go to work for a couple hours.

"I don't want clean," Chie groaned.

"Do you want to get sick?" Naoto asked, already tired of Chie's complaints.

"No…"

"Then get working."

"Do I have to clean obsessively?"

"Yes."

Chie sighed and picked up a cloth, scrubbing the table to the point where it shined and you could see your reflection perfectly in it, and then moved on to other areas. She moved rather quickly, but still did an amazing job.

"Wow, even big bro isn't that thorough," Nanako commented.

"So then if Yu-kun's obsessive, what do we call this?" Naoto asked, watching Chie move on to the counter.

"Batshit insane," Nanako replied casually.

"Wha-?!" Naoto turned to face the 6 year old beside her. "Nanako-chan, where did you learn that?!"

"From big bro and dad," she replied as though it was normal. "They like to comment on some of the specials on the news, saying the people, specifically the news crew that thought it was a good story, are 'batshit insane.'"

"D-do they know you say that?"

"Nope."

"Oh dear."

"Why? What's wrong with it?"

"It's a rather offensive way of saying crazy. I would recommend that you stop saying it."

"Stop saying what?" Chie asked, approaching them, having somehow finished the whole room.

"How did you miss that?" Naoto asked. She glanced around the room. "Forget that, how did you finish already?"

Chie looked around and shrugged. "I don't know. Now what are you talking about?"

"Apparently Nanako-chan's been listening and picking up her cousin's and father's words. Unfortunately, the specific words of the day are 'batshit insane.'"

Chie looked thoroughly confused. "Nanako-chan's learned what now?"

"'Batshit insane.'"

"That's… wrong."

"Yes, it is."

"Why did she say it?"

"Why are you talking about me like I'm not here?" Nanako asked, but was ignored.

"Because you were being more thorough with your cleaning than Yu-kun."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"Hello?!" Nanako almost yelled. "Am I chopped liver over here?"

"Am I dreaming?" Chie asked herself. "Nanako-chan seems a lot more vulgar than usual."

"'Than usual?'"

"OK, she is acting extremely odd compared to her normal child-like self."

"OK, seriously, do you even register that I'm here?!" Nanako yelled.

"Yes, we do!" Naoto and Chie yelled at the same time.

...

"Chie-chan!" Naoto yelled, poking her friend.

Chie jumped, pausing in her cleaning. "Yes."

"Were you just daydreaming?"

"I don't know. Why?"

"You seemed lost in thought, and just muttered something about how 'she is acting extremely odd compared to her normal child-like self.'"

"I-I did?"

"Yeah. And in that time that you were lost in daydream land, you singlehandedly cleaned the whole downstairs."

Chie looked around the living room and gaped in awe. The room was absolutely beautiful. "Shit, I did this?"

"Yep. What were you thinking about, anyway?"

"It was really weird. I somehow cleaned the whole house in a minute, and Nanako-chan was acting really vulgar, and she said that I was batshit insane because of how thorough I was being on everything. And while we were talking about it, she was yelling at us, asking if she was chopped liver."

Naoto stared at her friend in shock. Then, she took a step back. "OK, clearly you're delusional." She pointed to the door. "Go home and get some rest."

Chie stood up. "What? Yes, I don't know how that happened, but that doesn't mean you can mark me as delusional."

"You clearly are. Leave."

Chie stared at the younger teen, as though asking, 'Really?' She shrugged. "Well, I won't waste a chance to escape. Have fun cleaning."

"I won't have too. You did everything that I was going to do, since the upstairs is probably an infested hell-hole right now that I am not willing to go into for more than five minutes at best."

Chie shrugged, not quite caring. She left, and desperately tried to forget her odd-ass daydream.

* * *

 **I just really wanted to write that for the ending. It's beautiful, isn't it?**


	10. Time To Be A Stalker!

**Well, it's been a while, hasn't it? Oops, sorry, guys! I got a little caught up... doing nothing really. But hey, I stayed at my mother's so that I could finish Chapter 15 without feeling stupid for not being able to finish anything!**

 **Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday. I'm really sorry this took so long.**

* * *

Chapter 10

(15th) (Sunday)

"It was Kanji, you morons," Yu said when the debate about who appeared on TV started. Despite his small sick period, he had quickly gotten over it, and was standing before his group with almost as much energy as usual. Luckily, Dojima was looking a lot better as well, so he could stop cleaning everything to the extreme degree that he had been. He had even been granted the OK to return to work.

Strangely enough, when he woke in the morning, he swore the downstairs of the house was literally sparkling. Nanako didn't even seem to notice, so he just figured he was crazy. Though the look on Dojima's face upon coming into the room said otherwise.

Yukiko looked at him in confusion. "You mean Tatsumi, that Kanji?"

"Yes, I saw him on the special two nights before. Naoto was over and talking about it.. He beat up the bikers because they were keeping his mother up at night," Yu explained. "I think he's still safe for now, so let's just keep an eye on him and the Midnight Channel for now, alright?"

The rest of the group agreed.

"Moving on," Yosuke said. "What'll happen to him when… if he gets kidnapped?"

"Isn't it obvious from what happened with Yukiko?" Yu asked. "His Shadow will appear and do some creepy ass things, and then we have to go and save him."

The group shrugged at this and ended the meeting, having nothing more to discuss.

Yu returned home afterwards, trying to take it easy to avoid crashing like yesterday.

That night, the Midnight Channel had no change, so when Yosuke called, he decided to ask his friend an odd question. Or maybe not that odd when you consider they're teenagers. "Hey, which is your type, Chie or Yukiko?"

"I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours," Yosuke responded.

"It's a deal, so spill the beans," Yu demanded.

"Fine, if I HAD to choose, it would be…" Yosuke hesitated. "Chie, I guess. If you get on her better side, she is actually quite nice," he answered, a hint of shyness in his voice.

Yu snorted. "But you aren't on her good side."

"Shut up, yes I am. What about you?"

"I don't think I care. I've told you, I don't care about love," Yu said.

"If you had to choose," Yosuke demanded.

"Neither," Yu replied stubbornly.

"Are you just saying that avoid admitting who you actually like?"

"Nope."

"Then… what is your fucking type man?!"

"Neither. I don't want one who's as screechy as Chie can be, and won't misunderstand my words like when Yukiko hit you for thinking you were making an off-color joke. Granted, you had that coming, but I swear she wasn't listening to that conversation at all."

"So you want a calm, smart person?"

"A calm person who isn't an airhead," Yu corrected.

Yosuke made a mocking thoughtful noise. "Now which girls do we know are like that?"

"Good night, Yosuke."

"No, wait, du-!"

Yu hung up before he could finish his sentence. A moment later, he got a text reading, 'Not cool dude.'

* * *

(16th) (Monday)

"So what should we do about Kanji?" Yu asked after school let out.

"Why don't we just go down to the textile shop to see if we can spot anything that might make him appear on the Channel?" Chie suggested.

Yu shrugged. "I don't know. He's one of those tough guys, right? Wouldn't he try to beat us up if he caught us loitering about the area?"

"It wouldn't be that bad. We could outrun him, easily," Yukiko said. "Besides, I know him. I might be able to come up with a quick excuse and maybe even get him to spill a secret or two." Yukiko's friends stared at her. "What?"

"That feels… evil," Yosuke said. "I mean, getting him to spill secrets?"

Yukiko shrugged. "Got a better idea?"

"No."

"Then let's go." Yukiko stood, packing her stuff. "Besides, his mother will be there. It's unlikely that he'll attempt to do us harm with her standing right there."

"True," Yu agreed. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

* * *

"Ah, Yuki-chan, good morning! You look as lovely as ever," the shop owner greeted as they walked through the door.

"Good morning, Tatsumi-san," Yukiko replied. "How have you been?"

"Not too bad. Mostly because those bikers are finally taken care of, and I can finally sleep. I can't say I approve of the method, but what's done is done."

"Ah, yes, Kanji-kun did that, didn't he? The news crew didn't exactly try to hide it."

The store owner frowned. "Yes, I'm quite unhappy with that. Was it that hard to tell he wasn't a gang leader?"

"Yes, it's quite frustrating," Yukiko agreed. "Besides knowing that he's been on TV, how has he been?"

"He hasn't been too bad. Although… Yuki-chan, could you do me a favor?"

"What is it, Tatsumi-san?"

"I'm getting worried about that tough image he has. He doesn't have any friends anymore. Do you think you can talk to him? Maybe see if you can break through his shell? I remember how well you two got along when you were younger."

Yukiko nodded. "Of course. I was actually hoping to get to talk to him today. Do you know where he is?"

"No, sorry, Yuki-chan. He let about an hour ago. He should be back soon, though."

Yukiko smiled. "Alright. Thank you."

"What did you come here for, anyway?"

"What did we…?" Yukiko turned to Yu.

Yu raised an eyebrow. He took a step forward and spoke with an official tone as he half-lied. "We are worried about Kanji-kun's safety. Yukiko-chan said that she swore she saw Kanji-kun appear on the rumored Midnight Channel. Yukiko-chan herself is said to have appeared on the same Channel before she was kidnapped."

The shop owner stared at Yu, who was desperately trying to keep a straight, uncaring looking face.

"If you say so," she finally replied. "Try not to interfere with his life, but if you insist on keeping an eye on him, feel free to do so. Just don't get hurt."

Yu stared at her. "Uh, OK." He turned around. "Let's go, gang."

The group nodded and thanked Kanji's mother before leaving the store. Directly outside, they found Kanji chatting with Naoto. The group quickly hid, for no apparent reason, as they had done nothing wrong yet. Yu desperately tried to listen into the conversation.

"So… you beat them up because they were waking your mother, correct?" Naoto asked.

"Yes, why? What's it to you?" Kanji growled.

"Sorry. Detective Dojima has assigned this case to me since he has full control of my movements during work, and I'm guessing he's too scared to come down here himself, and Adachi-san is too much of a lazyass. Anyway, you beat up a bunch of people. Regardless of how much of a nuisance they were, we still have to determine whether you'll have to deal with being charged with major assault and battery."

"Fuck," Kanji sighed.

"Yes."

"Why send you though?"

"I am fully capable at my job, you know," Naoto told him, slightly offended.

"Yeah, I imagine. No one but the big guys are usually sent to talk to me. So to see a smaller kid is a bit of a shock. Almost offensive, actually."

"Does this happen often?"

"Often enough."

"Have you attacked any of the officers?"

"Not intentionally."

"How do you unintentionally attack someone?"

"I'm not sure, but apparently I've done it."

"That… is _very_ worrying."

"You're telling me?"

"Um… anyway…"

Kanji coughed awkwardly. "Yes, what were we talking about?"

"I was trying to determine if you should be arrested or not for battery."

"Right, yeah. Should I really be arrested? I was just helping my mother sleep."

"You did that in a very… unorthodox way, though."

"I realize that, but those guys had it coming!"

"I imagine, but…"

Kanji stared at Naoto, clearly getting annoyed. "You're starting to bug me, you know. Is it that hard?"

"Do you want to be arrested?"

"No, but if you're just going to stand around like this and think, then scram and do it somewhere else!"

Naoto sighed. "Fine, but can we talk tomorrow? There are still some things that I want to ask, but I can tell that you're getting annoyed with my presence."

Kanji nodded. "Fine. When?"

"After school gets out." Naoto paused for a moment. "Do you even attend school anymore?"

"O-of course I do. What else do I have to do around here? Remember that we're in the middle of nowhere."

"I don't know; you all seem to find something of interest to do during your free time."

Kanji shrugged. "Never noticed."

"Right. See you tomorrow, Kanji-kun." Naoto turned and left.

"Shit!" Yu hissed as Kanji started to turn in their direction.

Luckily, Yukiko thought quickly and jumped out of her hiding place, running up to Kanji, distracting him just long enough for her friends to make it look like they weren't just spying, and were just passing by. Chie briefly pulled out her phone and sent Yukiko a text thanking her.

"Good morning, Kanji-kun!" She greeted happily, after which she got the text and glanced at it before returning her phone to its place and glancing at Chie, who smiled sheepishly and continued on her way.

"Yukiko-chan!" Kanji said, a small smile forming on his mouth. "What was that?" He asked, pointing at her friends as they retreated.

"Chie-chan's being a weirdo and saying 'I see you,'" she replied somewhat casually.

"Oh, that's annoying, not to mention a little creepy. Anyway, I haven't seen you in a while. How are you?"

"Not too bad. How about you?"

"I was on TV and called a gang leader. How do you think?"

Yukiko frowned. "Yeah, that was mean of them. No one seems to want to sort out the facts before broadcasting things on the news."

"Yep."

The two engaged in a pleasant conversation for a couple minutes until Yukiko realized that she had to leave.

Along the way to her destination, she found her friends.

"Thanks for saving us there, Yukiko-chan," Yosuke said. "I'm sure he would have beaten me into a coma."

"He's not that bad, you know."

"Maybe not, but still…"

"Guys, focus," Yu said. "We need to make sure nothing happens to Kanji-kun tomorrow. I say we split up. One group watches Kanji-kun and the other keeps an eye on the textile shop."

"Why would we bother watching Kanji-kun?" Chie asked. "I mean, Naoto-kun's privy to almost all of our little stunts, so she wouldn't let anything happen to him."

"Best to be on the safe side. If there's a group watching from the shadows, then if the kidnapper comes by and takes then both down, then that group can get the jump on them, or at least find out who it is."

The group nodded.

"Fair enough," Yosuke said. "Who'll take watching Kanji-kun then? Because I sure don't want to."

"Why don't Yukiko-chan and Yu-kun go then?" Chie suggested. "I mean, Yu-kun can take care of himself, and Kanji-kun can't get mad at Yukiko-chan, right?"

"Alright, it's decided!" Yosuke said happily.

"Hang on," Yu said. "I don't get a say in this because…?"

"Like Chie-chan said, you can handle yourself if something happens. Me, not so much. Plus, if Kanji-kun tries to hurt you, I'm sure either Yukiko-chan or Naoto-kun, or maybe even both, will step in."

"…And they wouldn't for you?"

"Yukiko-chan, maybe. Naoto-kun, doubtful."

"Do you seriously believe she wouldn't protect you?"

"I have a feeling that she'd come up with some form of excuse to let me get beat up."

"No, she wouldn't."

"You don't know that."

"Unless you have attempted to hurt her, and if you have, I will hurt you, then she would have no reason to let a person who took down a whole biker gang singlehandedly try to murder you."

"That makes me feel better, but I would prefer to not…"

Yu sighed. "Fine!" He yelled. "I'll go with Yukiko-chan and spy on Kanji-kun. You two wimps watch a store for a couple hours."

"Fine by me," Yosuke said.

"I hate being called a wimp," Chie muttered. "But I'm fine with it if it means I don't have to follow around the most dangerous kid in town."

"Hey, what about me?" Yukiko asked.

"Sorry, Yukiko-chan. I don't think we have a choice," Yu said, resting a hand on her shoulder. "Just accept it. It'll cause a lot less pain that way."

Yukiko huffed, but accepted nonetheless.

* * *

(17th) (Tuesday)

After school, the group went down to the front gates where Kanji was leaning against a post. They engaged in a mock-conversation that was actually a bit of a weird way of saying what Kanji did throughout the day.

"The target entered the school two minutes before the final bell for first period, with mother-issued rations in hand, but nothing else. As far as I can tell, he was actually in the classroom throughout the day," Yosuke reported. "He likely slept, but was still there."

"You sound like such an idiot," Yu commented.

"Shut up, this is true spy work here!"

"Right…"

"Now then, onto Naoto-kun's movements…"

"I don't want to know," Yu told him. "Why were you even paying attention to that?"

"Both of you! Shut it!" Chie hissed. "Yosuke-kun, why are we even here still? We're not waiting for anything like those two." She jabbed her thumb in Yu and Yukiko's direction.

With a laugh, Yosuke said, "True. Let's go then."

The two of them laughed as they walked away.

"Have fun, you two!" Chie called out as they left to watch the shop.

"Fuck off!" Yu called out, only somewhat joking, to them.

With a huff, he leaned against the nearby wall.

"When do you think Naoto-kun'll get here?" Yukiko asked.

"I don't know," Yu replied. Suddenly an idea came to mind. "Oh, hey, I don't think I ever got your phone number."

Yukiko nodded. "That's important, isn't it? You never know when it might be necessary." She pulled out her phone, and Yu did the same.

After exchanging numbers, he scrolled through his contacts and said, "Yeah, I never got Chie-chan's either. She somehow got mine, but… I guess she got it from Yosuke. I'll have to get that from her later."

"Why don't I just give it to you?" Yukiko suggested.

"Because if I called her, she might freak out."

"Yeah, but you could always say that you got it from me. After all, it would be true."

Yu nodded. "Fair enough." He registered Chie's number.

Looking up, Yu was shocked to find Kanji gone. "Shit!" He yelled.

Yukiko looked around and then pointed. "They're at the bottom of the hill."

Yu sighed. "This is already not going well. I fear for what lies ahead." He and Yukiko took off running after their targets.

* * *

Down at the floodplains, Yu talked to Yukiko as they walked. "OK, so if they ask why we're here, what do we say?"

"We could always just say that we're just passing through," she suggested.

"But we never walk together."

"Then we need to start doing that." Yu stared at her. "What?"

"That was an odd mix of passive aggressive and assertive," he commented.

"Right, ok, um… do you have other ideas?"

"Not really. Do you?"

"We could always say that we're on a date."

"There are two things wrong with that idea. One: I'm pretty sure that Naoto-kun knows I'm not trying to find love at the moment. Two: Why would we walking down the floodplains of all places on a cloudy day on a date?"

Yukiko thought for a moment. "True… But you could always say that Yosuke-kun and Chie-chan forced us into it. That would fix both problems. I mean, it's not like we have to constantly be stating, 'you're beautiful' or 'I love you so much.'" She seemed to act with each phrase in an overdramatic fashion.

"Have you ever thought about trying out for the drama club?" Yu asked randomly.

"What?"

"You heard me. Have you ever thought about trying for the drama club? You'd be great at it."

"I don't know. That sounds hard."

"It wouldn't be that bad. I could join with you."

"You would?"

"Only if you can be bothered to. I need something to do besides read and relying on luck to cause something interesting to happen. Although, I do seem to have some amazing luck. Funny things just seem to happen around me."

"I guess I could try."

Suddenly, the two of them rammed into something, nearly knocking them over.

"The hell?" Yu asked, turning his attention back to the road they had been walking along. He was met with Kanji's frowning face, and Naoto gazing at him with a raised eyebrow.

"I thought you were more attentive than that," Naoto commented. "If you're going to be walking behind someone, at least pay the road a tiny bit of attention in case they stop."

"Why the hell did you stop anyway?!" Yu growled.

"Does it matter?"

"Maybe…"

"May I ask why you two are out here?"

"Does it matter?"

"Maybe…"

Yu frowned. "We were just talking. Is that so strange?"

"I guess not."

"You were trying to spy on us, weren't you, asshole?" Kanji asked threateningly.

"Wha-?" Yu scooted back a step and partly hid behind Yukiko.

"What am I to you, a meatshield?" She asked him.

"If it means I don't get hurt."

"I'm going to hurt you if you don't stop cowering," Kanji threatened. "Come on and face me like a man!"

"I don't wanna!" Yu whined.

"You are pathetic," Naoto muttered.

"No, I'm not," Yu whimpered.

"Yes, you are."

"I thought you were supposed to be our leader here, Yu-kun," Yukiko commented. "At the very least, stop whimpering like a wounded puppy."

"Fine," Yu said, putting on a completely neutral, unchanging expression and emerging from behind her. "Better?"

"Now you just seem kinda creepy."

"Choose one or the other, Yukiko-chan."

"Stay that way then. At least you aren't quite so pathetic."

Yu's indifferent mask broke almost immediately. "I'm not pathetic!"

"Yes, you are," all three of the other teenagers said at the same time.

Yu's jaw dropped in shock. "Mean!" He said, unsure himself if he was actually wounded on the inside or not by this point. It almost felt normal, surprisingly. "You guys just hate me, don't you!?"

"No, you're just being a coward," Naoto said.

"No, I just fear for my life. There's a big difference."

"Not in this case."

Yu frowned. "I'm done here. Goodbye." He turned on his heel and briskly walked away.

The remaining three teens stared at his retreating back.

"Dude, am I that scary?" Kanji asked after a moment.

"No, I think you're a perfectly normal person," Yukiko said. "Of course, everyone calls me oblivious, so I might be wrong." She shrugged.

Yu frowned as he found Chie and Yosuke. "We literally ran into him and then everyone started to think I was a coward. I got annoyed and left," he informed them.

"Okay…" Yosuke said in response.

"So, anything interesting happen over here?"

"Nope. We've been staring at the same scenery for about an hour now. No change."

"Dude, we were following Kanji-kun for twenty minutes, max."

"It's felt like an hour, okay?!"

Yu chuckled. "Alright."

"So, because our plan's gotten a little derailed, can we go home?" Chie asked.

Yu sighed. "I don't see why not. Check the Midnight Channel tonight."

* * *

Yu sat, staring at his blank TV in dull boredom. This moment was interrupted a moment later when he heard his phone ringing. He answered it, and Yukiko said almost yelled into his ear, "Kanji-kun's gone missing!"

Yu sighed. "Really? You've _got_ to be kidding me. I will not stand for that dude joining us!"

"Wouldn't he only have to join us if he has to face his Shadow?"

Yu thought for a moment. "We cannot let him accept his Shadow."

"What's your issue with him?"

"I'm a whole year above him and have supernatural animal powers, and yet I have a horrible feeling like he would beat me into a pulp if I so much as looked at him wrong."

"Yu-kun… he isn't a bad person."

"Tell that to the fact that he was almost charged with battery for beating up a biker gang."

"He had good intentions."

"Doesn't mean he wasn't almost arrested."

"True."

"So, how do you know he's gone?"

"I was making some calls for the inn and Tatsumi-san told me that he left for school in the morning and never returned!"

"How does she know he isn't beating up another gang?"

"There isn't another gang to beat up."

"Oh. Really?"

"Yes, really. Is it that hard to believe that Inaba doesn't have too much crime?"

"Considering how late my uncle's working every night, yeah, I find that incredibly hard to believe. Anyway," he glanced at the clock, "it's almost midnight. Watch the Midnight Channel."

"Do we have to? It sounds like they're really weird."

"Yours was probably… just a coincidence. Yeah. His can't possibly be that bad."

"If you say so. Goodbye, Yu-kun."

"Night," Yu said, hanging up.

A couple minutes later, the TV turned on with the Midnight Channel.

Standing there was Shadow Kanji… in a bunny suit. Yu wasn't sure if he wanted to scream in fright upon being suddenly greeted with that sight, or to laugh hysterically. He settled with a low whine that sounded like an odd mix of both options, which wouldn't awaken his relatives in the process.

The surrounding area appeared to be a giant store. On every shelf there was anything that could be considered cute, fluffy, or adorable. Although he'd never admit it out loud, Yu kind of wanted to take the cute chibi wolf pup stuffed animal home with him and was so focused on the cute fluffy-ness of it that he almost missed what Shadow Kanji was saying.

"Isn't this place great?" He asked no one in particular. "We're never leaving, and there is nothing that you can do about it! Bye!"

Yu stared as the Shadow turned and ran down an aisle. He almost growled when the ridiculous looking Shadow picked up the wolf pup that he had been eyeing almost the whole minute that the Midnight Channel aired for. He quickly mentally slapped himself and muttered, "It's a toy. Why am I getting so worked up?"

A voice in his head, similar to the one that had told him to eat the moldy pickle, told him, "Because I want it, dammit!"

Yu was shocked by this and tried to go to sleep, thinking that he needed more of it, considering he was hearing voices in his head. In the process of this, he accidentally ignored Yosuke, who was calling to confirm that he wasn't completely crazy. He had Yu for a friend, though, so of course he's crazy.

* * *

 **Yep, Yu's a complete wimp. Saddening, isn't it?**

 **I swear there was something else of interest I was going to say, but I can't remember it anymore...**

 **Anyway, not sure when the next one will be up. Hopefully not as long as Chapter 3 of Wings... (Which is something I continually make fun of in that story, for those who don't know. It took me about 5 months to get rolling again.)**


	11. The Soft Boy

**A chapter before a month (or more) has passed? *Shocked Gasp!***

 **Yep! I've gotten my lazy ass up off the couch and into my computer seat. I've now completed up to a little less than a third through Chapter 18, so I figured I'd provide you guys something to munch on.**

 **This chapter has 5465 words, including the chapter #, therefore making this the longest chapter that I have currently on the site. Yay!**

* * *

Chapter 11

(18th) (Wednesday)

After school, the group gathered around where Yu was seated. Why exactly they did that didn't make any sense to him, since, despite being their leader, he was technically equal to them and should stand just as much as them, but he got to remain in his comfortable spot, so he was happy. He figured that it was because he was the leader. Apparently that granted him special privileges. Anyway, back to the story…

"So, given what I saw last night…" Yosuke said somewhat hesitantly. "I'm guessing he's in the TV. But… um, please tell me that you didn't see what I saw."

"Depends on what you saw," Yu said.

"I saw Kanji, or guess that might have been his Shadow, actually. He was in a giant superstore full of adorable stuffed animals."

"Oh yeah!" Chie said. "That's what I saw!"

"Ok, so I'm not crazy… sadly."

"Yeah, I really wanted that freaking wolf pup that Shadow Kanji grabbed," Yu told them. "The way he was cuddling it at the end… it's as if he was trying to spite me."

The group collectively fell silent.

"What?"

"D-dude… what the hell?" Yosuke asked, taking a step back.

Yu lowered his head into his hands as he realized that he just admitted that. "I don't know. I need more sleep."

"Clearly."

"Anyway," Chie muttered, trying to get back on track. "I wonder how many other people saw that."

"Yeah, true," Yukiko said. "I mean, that'll hurt his reputation."

"I bet whoever threw him and Yukiko in there is enjoying this," Yosuke snarled.

Chie's eyes widened. "You mean he's watching us suffer!?" She shouted, amazingly not attracting the attention of every other student in the room.

"He might," Yosuke said.

"Oh, I'm going to get him for this! I'm going to stomp on his face so hard his skull'll crack!"

Once again, the group fell silent. As a matter of fact, the whole room did as everyone realized that what Chie was yelling about wasn't meat related, unless you wanted to say the skin she wanted to stomp on was in fact meat, which it was, it just wasn't what one would generally eat.

"…OK then," Yosuke muttered. "Wanna just… go to Junes to see what Teddie has to say?"

His question was met with quick agreements as everyone started to pack up and try to pretend that Chie didn't just threaten to crush someone's skull.

* * *

Down on the first floor, Yu found himself looking at a young girl that was at his shoe locker. She saw him and promptly freaked, running off.

Yu stared, somewhat dumbfounded, before turning to his friends. "Do you know who that was?"

"Nope," was the reply that all of his friends gave at the same time.

Confused, he looked in his shoe locker and found a note. It wasn't addressed to him, rather to another boy. He didn't feel that it was right to read it, so he didn't.

"Uh, you guys go ahead. I kinda want to check this out."

"Should you really mess with another person's love life?" Yosuke asked, glancing at the letter.

"No, I'm not going to do that, I'm just going to give her the letter back because I shouldn't have it."

"OK then."

Yu wandered off to find the girl. He found her on the roof, still knee-deep in her previous freak out, muttering, "I just gave it to the transfer student! I can't believe I just did that!" She was rocking back and forth in a fetal position and overall looking like she wanted to die.

"Um…" Yu cleared his throat, gaining her attention. She jumped. He held out the letter. "This isn't for me, huh?"

"Oh!" The girl started to trip over her own words in an attempt to apologize while he handed the letter back.

Yu couldn't help but laugh. "It's alright," he told her.

"I'm sorry, I just don't know what to do! I'm scared to talk to him!"

"Just be yourself," Yu advised. "If he can't accept you, then it sucks to be him."

"Is that all there is to it?"

"That and to have a little courage and faith. Oh, and uh, don't try too hard. You might hurt yourself otherwise, and I don't think you want that."

"No, I don't." The girl stood. "Thanks. I'll try to get the correct shoe locker this time." She bowed somewhat pathetically to him and ran off.

Yu watched her go and briefly wondered, 'Was that the girl from the ema? I'll have to check with the fox tomorrow.'

Yu jogged to Junes, catching up with his friends on the way, who had just walked out of Daidara's because they wanted to make sure everyone was outfitted with the latest gear.

* * *

(At Junes)

In the TV world, Teddie appeared to be having a crisis.

"Uh, Teddie, can you point us in the direction of Kanji…? We think he got thrown in here," Yu requested slowly, unsure of how to deal with the bear's current state of mind.

"Tell me, Sensei-knight," Teddie spoke, "how do you expect me to care about some lost kid if I am currently going through an identity crisis!?" His voice rose until he was screaming.

Yu wasn't sure whether he should feel bad for Teddie, or to think that he was over-reacting. Regardless, he approached the bear and crouched so he was at eye level and said, "Teddie, we'll help you however we can with this, but right now, this is important."

"It's going to be a long time until it rains in your world again, Sensei-knight."

"How can you tell?" Yosuke asked. "There isn't a weather system here, is there?"

"Not unless you count the fog lifting as a change in the weather," Chie answered.

"I thought that fog could be considered part of the weather though," Yukiko said.

"Does it matter?" Yu asked his group before turning his attention back to Teddie. "Come on, please?"

Teddie huffed. "Fine. My nose feels a little stuffy lately, though, so give me until tomorrow, OK?"

"Did you catch a cold?" Yukiko asked.

Yu laughed. "Maybe he somehow caught whatever bug was going around at the police station during midterms."

"The one your uncle caught from his sick co-worker that he then spread to you?" Yosuke asked.

"Yeah, that's the one," Yu confirmed. "I'm still shocked that Nanako didn't get sick." He stood up and said, "Alright Teddie. We'll come back tomorrow. Don't die."

* * *

(19th) (Thursday)

"Hey everyone, the exam results were finally posted!" An excited student yelled as he ran into the room.

Chie groaned. "Great," she muttered. "I already know that I am in the _bottom_ 10, and Yukiko and Yu are in the _top_ 10."

Yu decided that though he already knew the results, that he might as well see them anyway. He went down to the first floor and looked at the second year results poster. Yu was at number 1, with Yukiko as a close second. Chie and Yosuke were both at the bottom, although they were far from the worst. Yu suspected that Yukiko at least helped Chie out a little, considering they were such good friends, so how she was under Yosuke was a mystery.

Everyone seemed to be staring at Yu, and he swore he heard more than a couple people muttering, "Holy shit, he took the top spot from Yukiko-chan!" One person whispered to a friend, "Man, that's scary. Narukami-kun just burst in here and swept away the top spot. Makes you wonder what else the city kids are capable of."

To this, the person's friend replied, "Dude, they probably aren't all that good. Have you seen Hanamura?"

"Ah, I guess you have a point there. But, isn't that first year detective from the city, too? Maybe Hanamura just has a mental issue?"

Yu frowned at this and tuned them out. He glanced at the first year's poster to see how Naoto did. As he suspected, she did pretty good, and was number 3.

He spotted her a couple feet away and decided to chat, leaving Yosuke and Chie to sulk over their results.

"Third place!?" He asked as he approached, faking anger.

She glanced at him. "What about it?"

He relaxed. "I don't know, that's pretty good."

"That was pointless."

"Yes, it was. You know me, unless something is really serious, most of the crap that comes out of my mouth is pointless, so…"

"I figured that out."

"Back on topic, though, nice job."

"Shouldn't I be saying that to you? First place on your first midterms here? I think you made Yukiko-chan jealous, she walked off rather quickly."

"Hey, when you're constantly pushed around like I am, you're going to become a little bit of an introvert and spend your time studying or doing something else that doesn't relate to being social."

"How could you be an introvert? You're probably one of the most social people I know."

Yu smiled. "Thank you, it's a natural talent." The bell rang. "Shit, is lunch already over? Alright, see ya!" He dashed up the stairs, slipping into the room alongside the rest of the students.

* * *

With school over, the animal gang started for Junes. Yu stopped a moment before leaving, though, and dashed off, leaving his friends behind, confused.

Yu spotted the person he was looking for after a moment. "Did you do it?" He asked.

The girl looked over at him. "Oh, transfer student! Yes, it worked! He likes me!"

Yu smiled. "I'm glad to hear that."

The girl smiled and nodded. "Thank you. Oh, I need to go to the shrine! I wrote an ema, and it's fulfilled now, so… Bye!" She ran off.

"Huh," Yu muttered to himself, "so she _was_ the one to write the ema! That fox better give me a discount now."

He made his way back to his friends, who were right where he left them.

"Dude, what was that?" Yosuke asked.

"Sorry, had to check something."

"Were you messing with that girl's love life?" Chie asked dangerously.

"What? No, I wasn't. I don't mess with people's love lives. I help if required, but otherwise I leave it alone. Besides, I needed to help this girl so the cost of magic healing leaves that a fox brings us for our Midnight Channel expedition will go down."

This last statement was met with blank stares as they tried to properly process this.

"You'll see! Come on, we're burning daylight!"

* * *

(At Junes)

All but Yu stared at the fox, who was carrying four leaves in its mouth.

"See?" Yu asked. "A fox has magic leaves that it offers to us for money." He looked to the fox. "Did a girl come by and give her offering?"

The fox, in response, gave a muffled yip.

"So what's the new price?"

The fox yipped again.

"Only by 10?" Yu asked, slightly outraged. His friends, meanwhile, stared in stunned silence. They were all trying to figure out what was going on, and Yukiko seemed to be picking it up the best.

The fox nodded.

"No no, only having 40 yen off my whole purchase is not going to be good. Besides, we'll have another member soon. I can't afford that."

The fox stared at him, annoyed, before yipping again.

"A 5 percent discount?" He sighed. "Alright, I can deal with that, so long as I get more off the more emas that are fulfilled."

The fox nodded almost smugly.

Yu turned to his friends. "Let's go, team!" His team, however, stared at him.

"Did you just chat with a fox?" Chie asked.

"Why are you so shocked?" Yukiko questioned. "It isn't that hard to understand."

Yosuke and Chie turned their shocked faces to Yukiko.

"Maybe she has an affinity for foxes?" Yu suggested. "Her ears do look like a fox's…"

"That doesn't explain you, though," Yosuke said.

"Oh, maybe it's because I've had them longest."

The fox barked again.

"Yeah, we need to get to saving Kanji," Yukiko replied.

"Are you sure that's what it is saying?" Chie asked.

"That's what I heard," Yu said, backing her up.

Chie looked to Yosuke, who looked back. They shrugged with a sigh at the same time, giving up.

* * *

Inside the TV, Yu realized that Yosuke must have snuck in a hat rack after the store closed the day before, and also a makeshift weapon rack. They removed their hats, and gave Yukiko some basic instructions on her new powers, while waiting for Teddie to finish finding Kanji because he never bothered to do that earlier.

"I've found that Kanji kid! It least, I think that's him," Teddie yelled out.

"Good," Yu said like he was praising a dog, even patting him on the head. "Now lead us to him."

"Will do, Sensei-knight!" Teddie exclaimed happily, starting to run off, with the others following behind him.

Less than five minutes later, (but more that 4 minutes and 30 seconds) they arrived at a _massive_ stuffed animal store, with an overall bright color palette. They all stared at the huge structure for a second before walking inside.

Inside, the floor consisted of multi-colored tiles, and the place was filled to the brim with stuffed animals, just like it had been on the Midnight Channel. Standing there was Shadow Kanji, who was wearing the light purple bunny suit he had appeared in earlier. "Oh welcome!" He greeted them. "We know everything about this place, so if you need anything, just ask! Especially since it seems that all of the store employees have left."

Yu, mildly disturbed, stepped forward. "Yes, actually, you can be of some help to us. First of all, what happened to that wolf plushie you grabbed on the Midnight Channel?"

"Oh, him?" Shadow Kanji pulled the stuffed animal out of nowhere. "Here he is! Do you want him?"

"Kinda," Yu admitted.

"He's 500 yen."

Yu handed him the money. "Gladly. I have a little financial leeway since the fox dropped his prices."

Shadow Kanji smiled and pocketed the money; presumably putting it up his ass because there was nowhere else that he could have possibly put it. He handed Yu the wolf. In response to this, he giggled happily and squeezed it. His team, seemingly unable to cope with this previously unseen side of their leader, took a step back.

After finishing cuddling for the moment, he said, "Alright, back to business," much to his team's relief. "So, Shadow Kanji in a bunny suit, do you know where the other Kanji is?"

"Oh, him? He's on the tenth floor. We're terribly sorry, but due to technical difficulties, the elevator has broken, so we'd advise waiting for them to be fixed."

"How long would we be waiting?" Chie asked.

"About a month," Shadow Kanji replied casually.

"I think I'll risk getting some exercise with the stairs," Yu said, starting towards the clearly visible stairs at the other end of the store, his team and even Shadow Kanji following a moment later. "This'll be a piece of cake."

"Oh, you'll really go?" Shadow Kanji asked. "We're coming too then! We need to get there as well, but a bunch of bullies are being meanies and not letting us through using the stairs. But we'll be fine with you guys around!"

Yu looked at the other Kanji like he was crazy. After all, the real one was known for having a 'take no bullshit' attitude. Maybe he wouldn't be that difficult to get along with…

Unfortunately for him, he thought that too soon, as five minutes in, the creature that was Kanji's hidden emotions personified started to ramble on and on about the different things that they passed by, annoying the group to no end as they tore their way through the throng of Shadows that tried to stop them. Yu's knuckles turned white as he gripped his katana, desperately trying to not club the damn creature.

After getting to the door that stood between them and the real Kanji, Shadow Kanji dropped to the ground and fell asleep. Yu looked at the Shadow in shock.

"Ok then, just fall asleep on us, whatever," he said sarcastically. "Come on, let's go home. We'll save him tomorrow." He used a Goho-m, and suddenly they were standing by the exit TV. The fox, who had followed the group in, but had opted to stay by the entrance, and as such had almost fallen asleep, perked up, hopeful.

Yu chuckled. "No, we don't need any leaves today. Sorry, bud."

The fox's ear's drooped slightly, and it jumped through the exit without any hesitation. Admittedly, Yu felt a little bad, but got over it quickly because he was being charged so much money at the moment that the random items lying about in the dungeons they traveled through were a better option at the moment.

Tired and slightly beat-up, although not bleeding, the group returned to their world, leaving Teddie to mope again.

* * *

After getting home, despite being tired, Yu decided to talk to Dojima for a bit before he crashed. Luckily, he offered to make Yu some coffee, which might be able to keep him awake a tad longer.

"So how do you want it?" Dojima asked.

"Surprise me," Yu said uncaringly. It had been years since he last had coffee, he wasn't even sure if he liked it. He vaguely remembered disliking the taste, and ended up drowning it in sweeteners.

"Very well then," Dojima said, turning away to make the drinks. "You know, it seems to run in this side of the family to enjoy coffee black," he commented casually. "Even Nanako likes it better black." There was a moment of silence, during which Yu lovingly stroked his new plushie. Dojima just so happened to look back and see this. "Where did you get that?"

"Um…" Yu thought for a moment. "The internet…?"

Dojima raised an eyebrow, but let the subject drop, turning away.

A couple minutes later, a hot mug was placed before him. Yu took a small sip, finding it enjoyable. "It's been a while since I last had coffee," he informed his uncle. "It's kind of weird."

Dojima chuckled. "Probably."

The two enjoyed a nice silence as they sipped their coffee.

After they were done, Dojima took away the mugs. Feeling somewhat energetic, Yu got up and went to work on his small jobs upstairs. However, this energy lasted all of 2 minutes before his head collided with his table.

Almost ironically, the coffee hadn't even had time to take effect.

* * *

(20th) (Friday)

Yu woke up with a crick in his neck, as when he passes out the night before; it had been on his floor while sitting working on his translating.

As he walked to school 20 minutes later, he was gently massaging it in an attempt to make it feel better.

The dog that he had been feeding every day in the morning looked up at him in slight worry, before letting out a small yip and dashing off. Yu stared at the dog with a raised eyebrow for a moment before shrugging and continuing on.

A minute later, the dog came dashing back to him, barking to get his attention. He stopped and looked back. Following her (at least he suspected that she was in fact a she) was the fox, who was carrying a magic leaf.

The fox offered the leaf to him.

"You're going to make me pay… aren't you?"

The fox nodded.

"I don't have that kind of money, fox. I can deal with a little pain in my neck, you know."

The fox let out a muffled bark.

"F-fifty percent off!?" Yu almost shouted, staring in stunned disbelief.

The fox nodded.

"OK… I think I can pay that…" He pulled out his wallet and tossed the money into the bushes, trying to not attract the attention of anyone that might be nearby. Though he was chatting with a fox…

The fox happily handed him the leaf, and moved to retrieve the money. The little puppy stayed with him, assisting him.

Yu studied them for a moment before continuing on his way, rubbing his neck with the leaf until the pain was gone, at which point he shoved it in his pocket for he wouldn't have to pay for another one later.

* * *

After school, the animal gang went down to Daidara's. They had gathered up a large number of strange objects from dead Shadows, and they had to get rid of them. With the money obtained from that, they got better armor and weapons. With all of that business out of the way, they made their way to Junes.

The group somewhat casually walked quickly through the superstore, jumping into the TV… and found Teddie chatting with the fox.

"When did the animal enter?" Chie asked.

"Screw the 'when', how?" Yosuke questioned.

"Can Teddie open a portal that allows others through like what we can do?" Yu asked.

Chie opened her mouth to shoot this down, but closed it a moment later after realizing that she couldn't answer that.

"I thought you required to have ears and a tail for that. That's how Yu entered the first time, right?" Yosuke asked.

"No, I entered before gaining a Persona and animal parts," Yu reminded them.

Befuddled, the group decided to put off figuring out that mystery until they saved Kanji. Five minutes later, they interrupted Teddie's conversation and set off.

* * *

When they got back to the tenth floor, they found Shadow Kanji waiting.

"Where were you guys?" He asked.

"I'm sorry Kanji, but we got caught up doing other things," Yu said. "Mainly, wondering how a fox entered this world without us…"

Chie jabbed her thumb in his direction. "Yeah, and then this moron sat staring into space for a good 5 minutes."

"It wasn't staring into space; you just couldn't see what I was really doing!" Yu shouted to her. Turning back to Shadow Kanji, he asked, "Why didn't you enter without us?"

"I was afraid there would be more bullies."

Yu shrugged. "OK, whatever. Come on, let's go save Kanji!"

The four people (and one Shadow and one hollow bear costume) pushed open the door and walked inside.

Kanji was there, pacing back and forth, looking understandably distressed. Upon seeing the humans, he looked briefly overjoyed, but then his expression turned to one of confusion upon noticing that they weren't _technically_ human, due to their ears and tails. His face contorted further with bewilderment when he saw his Shadow self.

"What the hell are you wearing?!" Kanji yelled to his other self, not necessarily angry, just puzzled. "Why do you look like a softer version of me?"

"Don't you get it, my friend?" Shadow Kanji asked him. "This is formed from you. This whole place, me, and the suit that I am wearing. Admit it; this place is like Heaven to us. Everyone called us some really nasty names, just because we love to sew and adore soft animals. But this place is a haven where we don't have to deal with that crap."

Kanji looked away. "Hell, no, that isn't anything like me! I may have beat up some bikers because they were disrupting my mother's sleep, but that doesn't mean anything. I stopped liking shit like this a long time ago!"

Shadow Kanji didn't look happy. "You love it, please just admit that. It's for your own good if you do. Also mine, after all, I'm you, and I know what is best." The other Kanji seemed to be trying to accept him peacefully, without a fight, Yu noted briefly.

"Oh hell no, I think this place in nasty! You're me? Ha, no way in hell buddy!" Kanji yelled, and his Shadow looked like it wanted to cry as it transformed, turning into a large, bulky… something, covered in the purple suit that it had been wearing previously.

Kanji's look turned to one of massive horror, and Yu ran up beside him. "Kanji, get the hell away from here, now," he yelled, and then came the afterthought, "but don't go too far, OK?" Kanji didn't wait another second, and took off screaming like a little girl, flailing his arms around.

Yu sighed and rolled his eyes at the younger boy's kid-like nature, and activated his powers. He jumped at the big creature, clawing at it. The Shadow just stood there, staring at him in interest. Yu briefly feared that he was walking into a trap, but pushed the feeling aside, continuing his attack. However, when his hand made contact, it stuck.

Yu's eyes widened in shock. Planting his feet firmly on the Shadow's stomach, he pulled at the hand. After that didn't work, he tried to reposition his feet, only to find that they were stuck as well.

"Guys, I'm stuck to his fluffy suit!" Yu yelled, waving his only free arm around comically.

The others stared at him in confusion for a moment before ordering their Personas to distract Shadow Kanji while they worked on what to do. Finally, Yukiko stepped forward, saying, "I'm sorry about this, Yu-kun." She then held out her fan, summoning a card, spinning around and slashing it in half. Her Persona floated up next to Yu, and used a weak Agi spell to burn at his hand and feet.

Yu fell to the ground with a light scream of pain, and Yukiko ran up, rapid firing apologizes. She used the healing spell that had come with Konohana Sakuya. The burns Yu had received vanished, and he jumped up. "Thanks, Yukiko. I don't know what I would have done if you didn't free me. Now try to burn the Shadow's suit off!"

Yukiko smiled at the small praise and summoned another card, causing Konohana to fire off an Agilao. The Shadow didn't look too happy as its suit burned off, but a moment later, it somehow grew back. Yu was stunned into silence for a second before he growled. He realized that they had to get around this new problem. But how…?

Suddenly, a brilliant idea popped into his head. Or more accurately, that small voice in his head woke up again to whisper it to him. He smiled and clapped his hands, gaining his team's attention.

"I got an idea!" Yu said. "Stay on guard, everyone!"

Everyone withdrew their Personas, which had been desperately attempting to hit the Shadow with elemental attacks, which didn't seem to work in the slightest.

Yu dashed forward. The Shadow roared angrily and swung at him. He dived, rolling under the Shadow's legs. He stood and tried to stop his sliding, and almost didn't manage into time to enact the next part of his plan. He grabbed the Shadow's back before it could turn around. He focused on utilizing all the strength that he had, and amazingly, he began to lift the Shadow off its feet.

"Whoa, I didn't think that we were granted extra strength!" Chie yelled with a look of shock and amazement on her face.

"But… it doesn't," Yukiko said, confused and just as shocked as Chie.

"Not that you've tried," Chie pointed out.

"Does that mean he's been working out?" Yosuke asked, looking at Yu's upper body in a vain attempt to spot any change in his muscles. It was difficult to tell considering he was moving and wearing somewhat baggy clothing.

"No, he is just as scrawny as before," Chie replied; doing the same.

"Sensei-knight's just that awesome!" Teddie shouted happily, the fox, who had followed them into the dungeon this time, howling in agreement.

Yu successfully lifted the Shadow off the ground, struggling to keep it over his head. With a mighty yell, he turned and swung it towards the nearby wall, the fluffy costume forcing the Shadow to stick to his skin, even after his grip faltered and his hands released their hold as much as was technically allowed by their position. Yu was briefly afraid that the skin on his hands would rip off; it certainly did feel like it would but luckily, it remained. The Shadow smashed into the wall, probably giving it a concussion.

"Ready your Personas!" Yu yelled to the others, who were still watching in shock.

They snapped out of their daze, and did as they were told. Yu took a couple steps forward, dragging the other Kanji with him. Then he started to swing the creature around again. Instead of smacking into a wall, however, this time, it was impaled by the group's Persona's weapons. Shadow Kanji screamed in pain as it began to dissolve into Shadow guts and return to its previous state.

Yu's hands were released, and they dropped. He gently massaged them before pulling out the leaf he had bought that morning, hoping it would help his poor skin without having to buy a new one. The fox shot him a dirty look and growled.

"Oh, I'm a cheapskate, huh? Well, excuse me for not letting a perfectly good healing leaf go to waste."

The fox continued to glare at him and growled. Yukiko couldn't help but laugh as she deciphered the insults.

"Well, fuck you too!" Yu shouted, insulted, at the fox before proceeding to ignore him, causing Yukiko's giggles to intensify.

Kanji slowly appeared from the door, checking to see if it was clear. He almost ran away again after seeing his Shadow self there, slowly picking itself up from the floor. Chie quickly ran after him and tripped him, dragging him back while he whined, seemingly traumatized.

After Chie was done hauling him to his feet, Yukiko spoke up. "Kanji-kun, why did you stop sewing if some people were picking on you for it? Especially with your current attitude towards their crap."

Kanji adverted his gaze, turning it to the floor. "I just couldn't take it. Everyone was really mean about it. 'Oh, you like to sew? How girly.' 'You like fluffy animals? That's not very manly.'"

Yu cut the boy off. "Dude, you should have seen me yesterday. I was cuddling an adorable wolf stuffed animal. That is not 'manly' at all. So you don't have to feel bad about not being 'manly.'"

Kanji smiled and snorted. "Thanks man. The thing is that this is stuff my mom does for a living, and I grew up around it. So when I found out that most boys don't do that sort of stuff, I just felt… out of place."

"Let me guess, it was in middle school that they started to see that your actions weren't what they considered 'normal,'" Yu guessed.

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

Yu shrugged. "Middle school is where everyone starts turning into insufferable pricks."

"Uh… oh. But you're correct. And because of that, I adopted a tough guy attitude and look and stopped taking their shit. I stopped sewing and pretended to not care about fluffy animals and everything. If anyone tried to pick on me, I would threaten to break them."

"Isn't that a little harsh?" Yosuke asked.

"Probably… But it got them to back the fuck off."

Shadow Kanji nodded, continuing for him. "It's hard to stop liking something just like that, though. We could never stop loving everything we had given up."

Chie piped up. "So you just wanted people to stop taunting you?"

"Pretty much," Kanji said, walking up to his Shadow. "Hey, sorry man. But you understand my reasoning, right?"

Shadow Kanji nodded with a small smile, and changed into normal Kanji's Persona; a big bulky black skeleton type creature holding a lightning bolt. It changed into its ball form and floated into Kanji, causing him to collapse.

The guys sighed, and Yu took out a Goho-m, handing it to Chie. He then assisted Yosuke in helping Kanji back up, his previous amazing strength gone, as well as the voice.

Chie threw the item upwards, and they were teleported to the entrance of the store/dungeon. From there, they wandered back to the exit TV.

In the normal world, the gang moved Kanji over to their usual hat store while telling him about the whole, 'You're going to get ears tomorrow' thing and about what might be best to tell his mother, if he decided to at all. In said hat store, he picked up a yellow, white, and black hat. The others looked at each other in confusion of the combo of colors. Kanji didn't really seem to mind though. They stopped wondering after only 20 seconds due to everyone else having just as odd a mix of colors.

Back at the Dojima residence, Yu plopped down on the couch for a second, before deciding to just go to bed early. He groaned when he realized that meant he had to get back up.

* * *

 **Yay, Kanji saved! And Yu got his plushie!**

 **I vaguely remember enjoying making this chapter.**

 **Anyway, next time! Marie shenanigans!**


	12. And You Installed That How?

**During the part with Saki, I had to stop and wonder why I'm writing this. I was trying to type 'gorgeous.'**

 **Anyway, this is the longest chapter so far, and that's not even factoring in the A/N. It's 5854 words. Not sure how I did that.**

 **Also, I start school on the 7th. Why? I'm not ready! So I've decided to put this up while it's still August. Before my life degrades to a jumbled mess.**

* * *

Chapter 12

(21st) (Saturday)

Today, Yu bothered to get the next ema from the fox. "I wish I didn't crave snacks," he said, reading the ema. "Ugh," he groaned. "You'd better offer me a damn good discount later!"

The fox stared at him for a moment before barking.

"That doesn't stack with my current 5, does it?"

The fox shook its head.

"Fine, 10 percent it is."

The fox looked _way_ to smug.

* * *

After that fun time, Yu decided to hang out with Marie. It was an… interesting experience.

As soon as Marie even came close to so much as touching Igor, Margaret had them thrown out of the Velvet Room, saying, "If you plan on doing anything, maybe you should focus on getting Marie to regain the memories she's lost."

Slowly getting up and rubbing his now sore ass, Yu asked, "You lost your memories? Did you mention that before, or not? I can't remember, I'm still a little new to the whole 'you have friends, remember important facts about them' thing. I kind of gave up on that for a while."

Marie looked at him like he was crazy. "No, I don't recall telling you that."

"Well, apparently you don't recall anything, so that's not a surprise. Do you have anything that might help you?"

Marie pulled out a comb. "Does this count?"

Yu took the comb, studying it. "This is an odd ass comb," he concluded after a moment.

"No shit," Marie said, snatching it back. "Will it help, or not?"

"I don't know!" Yu yelled. "Is it important to you?"

"Yeah, it's the only thing that I've had with me from the first point that I can remember."

"What about your clothes?" Yu asked, being a smart ass, really hoping that she would say, 'Well, yeah, those too,' but for all he knew, she wouldn't and his smartassery would turn on him.

Marie looked down at the clothes that she was wearing. "Well, not these clothes specifically, but yeah, I was wearing something, you fucking weirdo."

Yu laughed. "Good, I was worried that you'd say that you had just been wandering about naked or something! Anyway, I'll do some research on combs later, but for today, let's just hang out and enjoy the day. What do you want to do?"

"What is there? I've only gone to that Junes place for Margaret's errands, really."

Yu thought for a moment. "Then let's wander. Wandering is a good way to clear the mind…"

"And you know this how, exactly?" Marie asked, seemingly skeptical.

"Because there is little else to do in this town," Yu admitted sheepishly.

"Should've seen that coming," Marie muttered. "Everyone I've seen on the way to the store always seem like they're dead on the inside."

Yu grimaced. "Yeah, that'll happen. Come on!"

For the next hour, the two teens wandered about. Admittedly, they tried to return to the Velvet Room at the 30 minute mark. The reaction was this:

Yu placed his hand on the door and pushed. To his surprise, it wouldn't budge. He knocked, hoping to gain the residents' attention. Adding to his surprise, Margaret yelled from the other side, "Go the fuck away!"

The door swung open and a bottle of wine came flying out, clocking the poor boy in the head and sending him falling to the ground, luckily not breaking from that impact, although it shattered when it hit the ground. Immediately after the container was chucked, the door slammed shut, and there was a clear 'click' as it was locked.

"When the fuck did they install a lock?" Yu asked as he clutched his pained forehead.

"Yesterday," Marie said, seemingly amused by what just happened, not nearly as worried about her friend as she should have been.

The rest of the time that he spent with Marie that day, and the rest of the day in general, he was fighting back a massive headache.

* * *

(22nd) (Sunday)

When Yu walked down the stairs to the living room/kitchen area, he saw Nanako sitting at the table, staring at a cute little seedling that was sitting on the table. "Good morning," she muttered with a surprising lack of cheer, not lifting her gaze.

"Uh, what's wrong Nanako-chan?" Yu asked her, looking at the seedling as well, though it did nothing to inform him of Nanako's plight.

"My teacher wants us to make a garden, but I don't know how. Daddy just said to plant it anywhere, but 'anywhere' is kind of vague," Nanako said, Yu wholeheartedly agreeing.

"Hey, isn't there a small plot of land to the right of the house?" Yu asked, remembering that there was unused earth just lying around.

Nanako looked up at him, curiosity in her eyes. "Yeah, I think there is, but what does that mean?"

Yu snorted. "You sound way too old for your age. Come on, I think you'll understand what I mean when you see it."

The two walked outside, and Yu looked down at the patch of earth. It was unused, unloved, and had plenty of potential. Yu smiled as he asked Nanako to come to Junes with him. He needed supplies.

* * *

An hour later, Yu was putting on the finishing touches of the new garden. He had told Nanako to go back inside after arriving back from the superstore, because he knew that she would be miserable out in the semi-cold. After brushing off some of the soil that had accumulated on his knees from when they had been resting on the ground, he walked inside, getting hit by a wave of heat as he stepped inside. He called out to his cousin, who ran outside without hesitation, having been waiting patiently for the past hour, forgoing shoes to see the new garden immediately. She was all kinds of giddy from the semi-contained excitement.

"I want our new garden to have a sign!" Nanako screeched happily after taking a good look at her bro's work.

She ran back inside, with Yu following, watching with interest as she looked around, and eventually finding some convenient wood that was already in the form of a sign, although the wood was unmarked.

"Daddy was going to make a sign out of this a couple years back I think, but he gave up. I don't remember much about it, but when I asked, he said I could do whatever I wanted with it," she informed him.

"Why did he almost make a sign?" Yu asked.

Nanako thought for a moment. "I don't know," she replied.

Yu laughed and started looking around for some paint. Eventually, he determined that there wasn't any located in the house and had to go get some from Junes. Upon returning with the necessary supplies, the two set to work making a sign. Nanako designed it on a piece of paper, and Yu was the one to actually write the words on the wood, because Nanako feared that no one could read her writing.

* * *

Nanako set the sign in the ground with pride. "Now everyone will be aware that we have a garden!" She said happily. "Do you think the veggies will be any good?"

Yu smiled. "Of course, but only if we work hard, and treat them with respect. You know, I believe that plants can sense that kind of things." Yu wasn't sure if that was true or not, but he just went with it, now that the words had come out of his mouth. No use taking it back.

"OK then, I can do that!" Nanako said happily.

"Now go get your plant," Yu said. "We can't have it just lying around in its tiny pot if we have this lovely garden, yeah?"

Nanako nodded and retrieved her plant. Yu dug a small hole in the soil and carefully placed what he supposed was a tomato seedling in.

By the time he was done with that, Nanako had run inside and retrieved more plants. Yu stared at them for a moment before asking, "Where were those?"

"By the window," she answered.

"So why were you just sadly staring at one of them that you placed on the table?"

"Um…" Nanako hummed in thought for a moment. "I have no idea!" She finally concluded. "Maybe to look melodramatic?"

Yu snorted. "Alright then. You are way too old for your age, I hope you realize." He set about planting the rest of the seedlings.

When he was done with that, he brushed off the soil that had decided to cling to him and left his cousin all alone like a cold-hearted bastard.

* * *

Yu was walking, bored, along the road. He stopped upon overhearing, "Why, goddamn urges?!"

Thoroughly disturbed, he looked in the direction of the woman who yelled that.

"Go away! I'm trying to become slim!"

"You already are," Yu informed her.

"No, I'm not!" The woman shrieked. She sighed. "Do you know of any bad-tasting snacks?"

Yu shrugged. "Depends on your definition of 'bad-tasting'."

"Just… something that really shouldn't be a snack."

"I'll see what I can do," Yu told her. "No guarant-" He was cut off because suddenly, Marie was there, dragging him away by the arm.

"Huh? What the fuck?" He asked.

"Margaret's being a bitch again," Marie said. "Take me somewhere where I won't have to hear her annoying voice."

"Ok, but you'll have to stop dragging me," Yu informed her, to which she complied and released him.

"So where are we going?"

"How about the school? I mean, yes, it's Sunday, but where else?"

"What's a school?"

"You know what it means to be a bitch, run errands, and go to the store, but you don't know what a school is?" Marie shook her head. Yu let out a sign. "Oh boy. A school is a place that you're forced to go to for a little under a fourth of your life. They teach you many unnecessary things. Hell, math is just there for problem solving skills that have been shoved into the most boring package they could come up with."

Marie raised an eyebrow, not sure what he was talking about.

"Come on, I'll show you," Yu sighed and started to walk.

* * *

As they walked, Yu spotted Yosuke, who was minding his own business, enjoying his time away from the horrors of school.

"Yo, Yosuke!" Yu called out happily. "Come with us to a world of imagination!"

Yosuke glanced at them. "Where?"

"The _school_!" Yu shouted as though it was the best place on earth.

To his amusement, Yosuke actually screamed, sounding like a little girl, before passing out.

"What the fuck kind of reaction was that?" Yu asked, fighting back laughter, as he approached his unconscious partner, poking him with his foot. "Hey, get up! School isn't that bad, at least not when there aren't any teachers!"

Yosuke popped open an eye to glare at him. "Yes, it is," he replied, apparently having faked the faint.

Yu reached forward and grabbed him by the arm, hauling him to his feet. "You coming or not?"

Yosuke rubbed his head, likely having hit it on the pavement in his fall. "Yeah, man. But why would you dare go there?"

"Marie's bored," Yu answered, jabbing his thumb in her direction.

"Marie?" Yosuke asked.

"A friend of mine," Yu clarified.

"Ah," Yosuke muttered as they started walking. He stopped a moment later. "Wait, why would you drag her to the school?"

"She is a very sheltered child," Yu half-lied.

"OK…" Yosuke said as they continued walking.

* * *

At the school, Marie looked around in half-wonder. "It's like a depressing version of the store," she commented.

Yu laughed. "Well, it's certainly smaller than Junes and has fewer floors, and it's very dark with the current lighting… Yeah, you're right."

"It's not as cramped as that stuffy room that Margaret keeps tossing us out of, so I guess it's nice."

"Try saying that when there are over a hundred people running around. It gets a little hard to breath. And you can't really hear anything because all the noise just smacks you upside the head."

"You know," Yosuke said, popping into the conversation, "it's actually a little freaky when it's silent like this. I'm so used to not being able to hear my own thoughts, and now… nothing. It's like something out of a horror movie."

Yu snorted. "Yeah, now all we need is some fake blood to splatter on the walls, maybe a couple mannequins to act as dead bodies, and we can act like there's a serial murderer on our asses as we try to get away from the school without them noticing."

Marie raised an eyebrow at the two boys. "What are you talking about?"

"Anything that comes to mind," Yu replied.

Marie rolled her eyes. "Boys," she muttered, walking off.

"She is a special one," Yosuke commented when she was out of earshot.

"Yeah," Yu agreed. "She knows what it means to run errands, and that teenage boys aren't that bright, but didn't know what a school was until today."

"Did you just call us stupid, dude?" Yosuke asked, offended.

"Admit it, we're all dumb."

"Ok, when you put it that way, I guess I can't complain."

The two went off in a search to find Marie, who wandered upstairs. Eventually, they located her on the roof. She was staring into the distance.

"Pretty nice up here, huh?" Yu asked.

"Yeah," Marie replied. She poked the fence. "What's this for, though?"

Yu shrugged. "I imagine a lot of people have died because they fell off. It is a long drop."

Marie looked down. "Yeah, I guess. But if people wanted to, they could just climb."

"Don't give them ideas," Yu advised.

"And who would I be giving ideas?"

"Spirits?" Yu shrugged.

"I don't think spirits can die, dude," Yosuke said.

"Well, they might."

"Even if they can, I doubt they'd choose to jump from a school rooftop."

Yu shrugged again. "Who knows, they might."

"Are you done?" Marie asked. "Honestly, you two. Do you ever stop talking?"

Yosuke huffed, offended. "Excuse me?"

Marie started walking. "Come on, I want to see something else."

The two stared at her as she left. "I don't understand her," Yosuke said.

"No one does, partner. No one does," Yu said as he pat Yosuke's shoulder before following their friend.

When Yu and Marie finally returned to the Velvet Room, Yu had to dodge another wine bottle coming for his head.

"Go away," Margaret commanded as she locked the door back up again.

"We've been out for hours! It's getting dark out here!" Yu complained.

There was a sigh, and a moment later there was a 'click' as she unlocked the door.

Yu groaned. "Honestly, it should not be this difficult to get you back into the room."

"Maybe if you weren't so obnoxious, I would let you in more easily," Margaret's voice came from the other side of the door.

"You're just as annoying as me!" Yu shouted, indignant.

Marie simply rolled her eyes and entered the room… limo, actually.

* * *

(23rd) (Monday)

At school, King Moron was in a _very_ grouchy mood. More so than usual, anyway.

"Alright, shut up!" He growled. "You slackers are pathetic! You're rubbing off on the freshmen! That Tatsumi kid ran off for a while! I bet it's because he didn't want to do any school work!" He started mumbling to himself before yelling in a fashion everyone was used to, "I outta expel all of you!"

While their crazy-ass teacher was taking his amazing amount of pent up anger on some poor student, Yu leaned over to Chie. "Hey, do you know of any snacks that don't taste like snacks probably should?"

"Yeah, I guess I do. Why?" Chie responded.

"Well, remember the whole, 'I fulfill emas for a fox and he provides discounts on magic leaves' thing I have going?"

A look of realization crossed Chie's face. "Oh, so you need something to complete the next ema request, yeah?" Yu nodded. "Alright then, I think I have something that will be perfect." She started to dig around in her pockets as subtly as possible, so as to not attract their teacher's attention. Finally, she produced a stick of gum. The wrapper read, "Meat flavored!"

"Yum," Yu commented sarcastically, pocketing the foodstuff. He let out a sigh as he returned his attention to the raving teacher, unfortunately catching the attention of the King of Morons.

"Don't talk while the teacher is talking!" He yelled.

"I wasn't talking, I was sighing," Yu replied with as neutral a look as he could muster on his face.

King Moron looked like he was going to pop a blood vessel. Or two. Or five. He decided to go shout to another student, for no apparent reason. "You're breathing funny and I can hear it!" He yelled to some kid that looked like they were going to nod off.

"The fuck's his problem today?"

In response, Chie shrugged. "How should I know? He's always had a stick up his ass, ever since he moved out here. And according to what I've heard… that's a _very_ long time."

Yu cringed. "Kind of makes me glad that I'm only here for the year."

"Yeah, you're fucking lucky." A moment of listening to King Moron's ranting passed. "I hate him."

"I think everyone does."

* * *

After successfully escaping from their obnoxious teacher, Yu decided to spend his day hanging with Yosuke. Along the way to Junes, he damn near chucked the stick of gum at the slim woman who wanted to become the human equivalent of a toothpick. He didn't bother to say anything to her other than, "Don't forget to pay the damn shrine."

Both the girl and Yosuke stared at him like he was fucking nuts. Yosuke really shouldn't have, though, because they had long since established that it was the truth.

Once they got to the supermarket, they took over the table that they usually occupied when it was sunny, or at least not drenching them in buckets of rain.

They were having a generally good time, but then _they_ happened.

"Hey, Hanamura!" A rude, high pitched female voice called out.

Yosuke groaned in response. He stood and faced the newcomers.

"What's wrong today?" He asked, already annoyed, with his tone showing it, though he had a plastic polite smile on his face.

"'Today'?" Yu asked with a grim expression, already seeing where this was going.

"You'd better say something about that damn father of yours! I've told him that I can't come in on the weekends, but he's making me because Junes is short on staff! He'll fire me otherwise!"

'Please do,' Yu mouthed in her general direction.

"Isn't there a law against that or something?" The other girl, with an even more annoying voice, asked.

"If there is, why don't you find it and show it to him?" Yu suggested, accompanied by a small, annoyed eye twitch. He'd only been around these immature brats for 20 seconds and he was already fed up.

"Regardless of whether there's a law, didn't you guys say that you could work the weekends?"

"Yeah, otherwise they wouldn't hire us!" The first girl said with a huff.

"Then that probably negates the law if there is one to begin with!" Yu argued.

The girls shot him an annoyed look and stalked off.

Yosuke breathed a sigh of relief and sat down.

"Thanks bud," he muttered. "They can go on for hours if you let them. Ungrateful brats."

"Bet their parents spoiled them and made them feel like they have a right to everything the world has to offer." Yu smiled almost devilishly as he said, "I like putting those people in their place."

Yosuke let out a cheerful laugh. "I'm dragging you to work from now on, 'k? I'll shove you in my backpack if I have to."

Yu raised an eyebrow. "Good luck with that."

Yosuke smirked. "I'll find a way, trust me, I just need to get you going fast enough." He looked off to the side, did a double take, and jumped to his feet, calling out, "Hey, senpai, come here a sec, could you?"

Said person came over. "Hey there, Hana-chan, how's it goin'?" She greeted.

"Not horrible. Yu here just put those snotty brats in their place!"

The girl seemed surprised. "Wow, that's impressive. How'd you do that?"

"They mentioned that there might be a law on forcing people to come into work on days they say they can't be at, but they said that they could work weekends, and I think that negates it if it does exist to begin with, so… ya know," Yu explained.

"Wow, you need to train Hana-chan in that little skill of yours. He's been dealing with them for a while now, you know."

"Already done. I've decided that I'll shove him in my backpack if I need to, but he's coming to work with me from now on until they leave me the hell alone."

The girl shrugged. "If it means they stop complaining, then I'll help if need be."

"Really? Wow, thanks, senpai! So, how have you been? I haven't seen in a while."

"A bunch of things came up at once. Business issues at my parent's store, and then I got a really nasty bug, was out for at least a week, and any other large number of things."

Yosuke's smile dropped. "Oh, sorry to hear that."

The girl waved it off. "Don't worry! Besides, I'm here now, and I've finally gotten to meet the new kid."

"I'm not exactly 'new' anymore, but sure, whatever."

Yosuke reached over and pat him on the back. "He took Yukiko's top spot on the exams! Unbelievable, am I right? Honestly, I'm _so_ jealousy of his ability."

"Maybe if you studied, you'd get somewhere," Yu said.

"Yu…" Yosuke muttered dangerously and yet playfully.

The girl seemed impressed. "Wow, that's a first. Wonder how she's taking it? Anyway, I never introduced myself; I'm Saki Konishi, yours and Hana-chan's senpai."

Yu bowed his head in greeting. "Yu Narukami, if you haven't figured one out yet. Do you work here?"

Saki laughed. "Yeah, it's the one place a freaking second-year can be higher up than me."

"Well, you're still the smarter one, senpai," Yosuke said with a smile. Suddenly, he remembered something. "Oh, right, senpai, can you do something for me?"

"What is it?"

"It's about the 'weekend brats.'"

Saki groaned at the topic resurfacing. "What about them?"

"Well, we wanted to give you a special bonus if you can ensure that they'll stop their complaining, in one fashion or another, just so long as you don't glue their mouths shut. Duct tape, strangely, is fine by my father's standards, though, so have at it."

Saki looked strangely gleeful at the idea. Yu laughed.

"We were planning on giving you a raise soon anyway, so if you do this for us, you'll get it early and an extra 10,000 yen. It really shouldn't be hard after what Yu just said to them."

Saki brightened. "Well then, what am I waiting here for? Where are they?"

Yosuke chuckled. "Calm down for a minute, now."

"Ok, fine. Why me, though?"

"You're much higher up on the social ladder than me. We're hoping that they'll listen to you. We've never seen you three interact-"

Saki cut him off. "Yeah, because I try to avoid them like the plague."

Yosuke let out a small chuckle and continued like she hadn't interrupted. "…But you should be persuasive enough."

"I hope." She went on her way.

Yosuke smiled as he relaxed back in his chair.

"She seems nice," Yu commented.

"Yeah, she is," Yosuke replied. "I think she's one of the few people that don't hate my guts."

"Bet she does," Yu said casually.

"Yu! Don't say that, it'll jinx me!"

"Doesn't saying, 'I think she's one of the few people that don't hate me' count towards jinxing oneself?"

"Yu…"

"Why does it matter to you anyway? You've got me." Yu posed dramatically, as though that would prove just how epic it was just to be in his presence.

"Seriously?" Yosuke asked.

"Seriously," Yu replied with a straight face.

Yosuke wasn't sure how to respond to that. "You know, you're a good friend and all, but I want more friends than the kid that's only here for a year, the oblivious girl, and the one that kicks me in unsavory places every time I do anything remotely incorrect by her standards."

"Don't forget Kanji."

"Oh, yeah, thanks for the reminder. And the tough kid that could, and would, probably punch my face in if I looked at him funny."

"Ok, I guess I can get that, but what's her flaw?"

"What?"

"Well, you find faults in all of us, so what's Saki's?"

"Why does it matter?"

"I'm curious. Come on, spill it."

"I… she doesn't have one."

"You have a crush on her!" Yu gleefully accused without a moment's hesitation.

"What?!" Yosuke hissed. "Don't go shouting it out!"

"I'm right, aren't I?" Yu asked happily.

"Yes, but how did you know?"

"It seems like something a young inexperienced lover would do upon meeting that gorgeous woman whom is their first crush," Yu answered.

"And you know this, how exactly? I thought you were the mostly socially awkward kid who gave up on any form of relationships for the longest time."

"I am. But I'm not completely ignorant."

"Alright," Yosuke muttered. "Just… don't tell her, alright?"

"Nope, I won't. That's your job. Provided you ever work up the courage, mind you."

Yosuke nodded, and the topic changed to less heavy stuff while they waited for Saki's return.

After 4 minutes and 28 seconds, Saki returned with a seriously ticked off expression.

"Uh, it didn't go well, did it?" Yu guessed.

"Nope. Someone needs to bang their heads into the wall a couple times. They wouldn't even sit still long enough for me to tape their mouths shut."

Yu glanced at Yosuke, who glanced back.

'Found that flaw,' Yu mouthed.

Yosuke nodded slowly before jumping to his feet. "Come on, Saki, we need to go report to my dad." He glanced back at Yu. "Sorry, bud, we got to go do this. See you tomorrow?"

Yu nodded, standing. "Nice to meet you, Saki-senpai." He gave her a quick bow before leaving.

* * *

On the way home, Yu briefly stopped by the shrine.

"Yo, fox!" He called out.

The fox appeared, and barked.

Yu smiled. "Good," he said with a nod.

The fox barked.

"Sweet. I'd better get at least 15% next time, you know."

The fox barked and provided him a new ema. 'I wish our dog would return.'

"Alright, then."

The fox barked.

"Goodbye to you, too."

The fox left.

* * *

(At home)

Nanako was pacing all around the house, much to Yu's amusement, while talking on the phone. Finally, she hung up. She began to bounce excitably, saying, "Daddy's coming home tonight!"

The thought brought a smile to Yu's face. Dojima was rarely home for dinner, so it was quite nice to see his cousin's excited bouncing at the thought that he would be today. Although, that also said a lot about the fact that _he was never home._

Nanako's amusing bouncing eventually ceased, and so Yu turned his attention to the TV. His attention returned to his cousin when he heard what sounded like slumping. If that actually had a distinguishing sound, mind you.

Yu got up and looked in the fridge. There wasn't much there, but enough for dinner, at least. "What's the issue?"

"We're out of pickled radish."

"And that's relevant because…?"

"It's his favorite food."

"Oh," Yu muttered, suddenly getting it. "Come on then, let's go get some."

"But what about not leaving the house after dark?"

"It'll be quick. He won't even know we left. We just can't goof off."

Nanako brightened. "OK!" She got up from her slouched position and started running, almost leaving the house before Yu stopped.

"You're forgetting something!" He yelled.

Stopping, Nanako looked down and realized that she didn't have any shoes on. "Oops."

She was midway through the act for putting them on when the door opened. Dojima walked into the area, looking tired but happy. This quickly changed.

"Where did you think you were going?"

"Sorry, uncle," Yu said, stepping forward to try and keep Nanako out of this. "My idea. See-"

Dojima scowled deeply, and cut him off. "Nanako, go to your room."

Nanako squeaked in fright and ran off after removing her shoes.

The two males stepped into the living room after also taking off their footwear.

"Uncle-" Yu started, getting cut off again.

"What did you think you were doing? It's dangerous at night."

"I go wandering at night all the time, it's fine!"

"You do what now?"

"The point is… I wouldn't let anything happen to her even if it costs me my life."

"You shouldn't be going out there!"

"She wanted to get you some fucking pickled radishes!" Yu yelled angrily. "She just fucking wanted to make you happy! If you had just let me fucking finish my damned sentence, you would've fucking known that!"

"You shouldn't be wandering around looking for radishes!"

"There are plenty at Junes, we wouldn't be 'wandering'! It's quite difficult to miss the biggest fucking store this town has to offer!" He pointed in general direction of Nanako's room. "Now go apologize to your child!"

Dojima was rather stunned, a rather natural response to a kid telling him what to do. After a moment of not moving, Yu growled threateningly at him, and sent him skittering away like a frightened puppy.

The thought, as cruel as it was, brought a smile to Yu's face.

After a moment passed, Dojima called out, "Yu, get over here!"

Yu dashed over to Nanako's room. The door was open… and the window. Said girl was nowhere to be found.

"I think you broke her," Yu commented.

"You played a part in it."

"Let's worry about who did what later."

"Agreed. MOBILIZE THE TROOPS!"

"What troops?"

"Your friends!"

"They aren't troops."

"They are now! Mobilize them!"

Yu stared at his uncle like he was crazy for a moment before calling up Yosuke.

* * *

Five minutes later, everyone had been contacted and was running all over the place looking for Nanako. For once, Inaba felt way much big.

"This is getting us nowhere fast," Chie complained when they crossed paths. "I hope nothing's happened to her."

"She may be upset, but she's not stupid," Yu said. "I think we just aren't looking in the correct spot."

"Is there anywhere you can think of that she might have run to, though?"

"She's usually around the hill or Samegawa, last I checked. Best to try there."

"Why didn't you say that earlier?"

"You didn't ask."

Chie groaned before running for the hills.

Eventually, he got a text from Yosuke. "She's down by the river."

Yu got Dojima and they ran over there.

"You scared the crappicals out of us!" Yu said as they approached her.

She looked up at them. "That's… not a word. And sorry."

Yu shrugged it off. "Don't worry. Come on, let's go home. It's cold."

The whole way home, Dojima was rather awkwardly trying to apologize to his child for being quick to anger. After a while, she had enough, and told him, "It's alright, dad."

He shut up after that.

Yu was quickly unnerved by the silence, so he jokingly said, "So… no pickled radishes?"

Surprisingly, Dojima replied, "Sure, let's go!"

"Um, you know your daughter doesn't even have shoes, right?"

* * *

(Time Skip) (27th) (Friday)

Yu was wandering about rather aimlessly out of boredom. That is, until he saw Adachi slacking off… again. Because of the aforementioned boredom, he decided to join the lazyass.

"Morning," he greeted.

Adachi looked at Yu like he was crazy. "You're not going to drag me away, are you?"

"No, I'm too bored to do that. Amusing me."

Adachi frowned, and stared at him. "No," he said defiantly.

"I'll tell Dojima…" Yu threatened.

Adachi, frightened, started to dance.

A smile spread on Yu's face, and he clapped. "Keep it up!" He said.

"How long, though?" Adachi asked.

"Until it's time for me to go home."

"But what about me? Dojima-san'll hurt me if I don't get back. I just got here, you know, I'm not late yet."

"Then that's your fault."

"How? You're making me dance!"

"If you weren't late to begin with, why did you start dancing?"

Adachi stopped dancing just long enough to smack his own forehead for his stupidity.

"So," Yu started, leaning against the wall, "what kind of girls do you like?"

Adachi stopped his dancing completely, looking at Yu incredulous.

"Excuse me?"

Yu shrugged. "I'm curious, humor me. And keep dancing."

Adachi awkwardly started dancing again while talking. "Well, I want one that's beautiful, and can cook."

"That's going to be hard, bud. Nanako's not even 10."

"I did not mean her!"

"She's the only female that probably is a really good cook in this town."

"There are plenty of more people in this town that can do that! And I don't plan on living here, FYI."

Yu shrugged. "You might find one."

Adachi laughed. "Doubtful. I've met every female in this town, and none of them are good enough."

Yu frowned. "Now that's just mean."

The nearby door opened, and Adachi paused mid-move, his hand in the air like he was attempting to imitate a disco star. He glanced at the person that just entered the area.

Said person stared at them.

"M-morning," Adachi greeted.

"Hi, Naoto!" Yu said happily. "Come watch Adachi dance with me." He sent a glare at Adachi. "Dance, mortal," he said in a low, threatening, demon-like voice. Adachi started his dancing again.

Naoto simply stared at them, blinking. Eventually, she turned around and walked out of the area. Not a sound left her mouth the whole time.

Adachi and Yu continued their conversation like it had never been interrupted. "So," Adachi started, "I've answered for you, now you answer for me. What kind of girl?"

Yu shrugged. "I don't care for love."

"And yet you snoop around other people's love lives. Thanks."

"Anytime!" Yu replied joyfully.

"Anyway, if you had to choose, what would be your dream girl?"

Yu thought for a moment. "Well, I would prefer she knew basic cooking, because I don't want to make every meal, and I don't want to teach her. I would also like for her to be at least semi-independent. You know, if she constantly relies on you, stuff gets repetitive quickly."

Adachi nodded in understanding.

"I would also prefer for her to somewhat smart. Not necessarily 'getting the top spot on exams every time' level, but doesn't fuck up every test she takes, you know?" Yu thought for another moment. "And I think that's it." He looked at the clock. "I think I've detained you long enough, mortal. You may go."

Adachi stopped his dancing and ran like his life depended on it. Yu chuckled evilly.

* * *

 **I'm happy with how this chapter turned out. It's nearly double the length of the original, and I myself was greatly amused by Adachi at the end. Plus the Velvet Room having a lock. How did they do that? I don't know. Maybe magic. Or maybe Marie had to buy it from Junes and that's why she wasn't at all surprised by what happened. The world may never know.**


	13. I Waited A Month And A Half For THIS?

**Whoa, it's been a while! Miss me? No? Can't say I'm surprised.**

 **So, you remember last chapter's notes where I mentioned my life becoming a jumbled mess? Yeah, that actually happened. It's been only two months, and my life's practically fallen apart from the stress already.  
Seriously, on the 10th, my hort teacher made me re-write my notebook into a new one because I can't have two subjects in one notebook despite the fact that I have never managed to successfully fill up all of one across a single semester, let alone a full years worth. *groan* I can't rant about that anymore. I'm burned out.  
I feel so bad for my friend I've been talking to over PM. Author of one of the Shovel Knight fanfics, if you know that side of the site. Doubt there's any desire to read my rants, though...**

 **I feel back about not updating this in two months, so... here you go. Enjoy friends.**

* * *

Chapter 13

(28th) (Saturday)

While walking to school on this lovely (albeit very rainy) day, Yu unfortunately ended up walking behind two chatty girls. Normally this wasn't a problem, and technically it wasn't today. It was a decent source of information, actually; a good way to find out what was circulating in the high school grapevine. The issue was that these two particular girls had really annoying voices, and every time they opened their big fat mouths, Yu had a small desire to smash their faces in. Of course, he always relented a moment before he got within two feet of them. Didn't stop that desire, though…

"So, have you heard of that TV show?" One asked.

"Which one?" The other asked.

"You know, that one," the first replied.

"Seriously?" Yu muttered to himself as the second one said, 'No, I don't know that one.'

"'Tanaka's Amazing Commodities'!" The first screeched, making Yu cringe and grind his teeth together as he fought back the hunger to rip out their vocal chords with his bare hands.

"Oh, that one! Why didn't you say so? Yeah, I've heard of it, but it's only on Sundays, when I'm out with friends, Monday, when I'm out with friends, and Tuesdays, when I'm out with friends!"

"What a varied lifestyle," Yu muttered sarcastically to himself as he finally ran ahead of them, having heard everything that he could have ever needed to hear, and more to boot.

* * *

(Time Skip! Again!) (29th) (Sunday)

Because he was bored, Yu decided to tune into that Tanaka show. What he saw was stunning. Seriously, how had he not been shut down yet?

He had, this week, anyway, shoes, slimming food, and… an emergency medical kit. Apparently last week he had something much worse, though. It was a motherfucking katana. He was even swinging it around on set and ripped a banner in the background, which Yu had noticed early on and spent most of the time he spent watching just trying to figure out what happened. Eventually he pulled out the small laptop his parents had given him (that he never used too much, but enough that he brought it along with him anyway), hooked it up to the house's wi-fi and looked the event up.

When he found out how the banner was ripped, he began silently debating with himself on whether or not to call the police on the businessman. Seriously, he was literally selling weapons of mass destruction to whatever idiot decided that he needed a katana. Eventually, the stupid side of him won over the rational side and he ended up ordering the medical kit. Never know when that might come in handy, right? Especially when you jump into a TV full of murderous black blobs on a nigh regular basis.

* * *

(30th) (Monday)

Unfortunately, today, just before lunch too, which was always fun, Morooka was in another one of his 'moods,' and he was once again taking it out on the absent Kanji.

"So, that damn Tatsumi kid is still gone. 'Kidnapped,' bah! What a load of shit!"

Yu's eye twitched listening to this, and his lips curled back in a small snarl. He glanced at Chie, and found a similar expression. These looks quickly changed upon the moronic teacher's next sentence.

"I bet he's just using that as an excuse and has been dicking around all day."

Yu's frown disappeared in an instant, the man's strange choice of wording bringing a smile to his face. Everyone else had a similar reaction.

"What?" He asked. "What's so funny?"

Silencing his chuckles for a moment, Yosuke raised his hand briefly before answering. "Last I checked, teachers really shouldn't say 'dicking around' in front of a bunch on immature teenagers."

The look on King Moron's face was priceless as he realized that he just gave them something to laugh at. More specifically, he just gave them a reason to laugh at him.

"Dammit," he muttered before turning and stomping out of the classroom as the lunch bell rang.

* * *

On the way home, Yu decided to get a snack at Junes. Though he could just return to the Dojima residence and see what was in the fridge, he'd learned that relying on that thing was stupid at best. Moldy pickles, a science project, a flat soda… hell, he'd found an alarm clock in there… on multiple occasions, no less.

While wandering the produce section for something nice, he spotted Yukiko. Approaching her, he said, "Good day, friend!"

Yukiko jumped and looked at him. "Oh, Yu-kun. Good afternoon. What are you here for?"

"Just looking for something to munch on," Yu replied. "You can't trust what's in the fridge at home. All you'll find there is mold and alarm clocks. I fear the day I find a moldy alarm clock."

Yukiko, naturally, looked a little confused, stunned, and slightly alarmed at this, and as such, found herself unable to reply.

Seeing that she wasn't going to say anything, Yu decided to keep the conversation rolling by asking, "So, why are you here?"

Snapping out of her stunned state, Yukiko replied, "Oh, I'm shopping. Duh."

"Why? For the inn? Aren't you the owner's daughter? I thought that the children were excluded from something as mundane as shopping."

"It's not that bad," Yukiko replied, picking up an apple and examining it unnecessarily. "And not for the inn; at least, not this time. I'm just trying to improve my cooking skills. I'm… not good, let's just say that. Everything I make seems to be inedible. I plan on leaving Inaba, so I have to be able to cook for myself, right?"

"You could always just live on instant ramen until you can get a spouse that can do the cooking for you," Yu suggested.

"As 'lovely' as that sounds, Yu-kun, I think I prefer my internal organs functioning, thank you."

Yu scoffed. "Your internal organs wouldn't shut down. At least, not until around the sixth month or so. Anyway, want some help? I could be your taste tester!"

"Um, Yu-kun, my food is bit of a death sentence. You obviously didn't see my mother's reaction to my last attempt. She literally ran out of the room, screaming bloody murder."

Yu laughed. "So long as you stick to the cookbook, you should be fine. Besides, I've survived a moldy pickle a voice in my head tempted me into eating; I'll be fine!" Despite this proud boast, said voice in the back of his head appeared and said, 'Dude, you're going to die. Painfully.'

Yukiko stared at him for a moment, probably debating on whether or not she should comment on the voice in his mind. "If you say so," she muttered, resuming her shopping.

A semi-random thought occurred to Yu, and he asked, "…How are you going to pay for anything, though, once you're out?"

Yukiko paused as she realized that such a detail was incredibly important. "Um…"

"I thought so," Yu muttered. "You might want to take up a job translating or something. Those are always in abundance, and with your grades, they should be a breeze!"

Yukiko had a thoughtful look on her face as she mulled over this. "Yeah, I suppose I could give that a shot. Thanks, Yu-kun!"

"Anytime, dear!" Yu said, providing her a smile while holding up his thumb.

* * *

(31st) (Tuesday)

Yu had nothing to do today. So, when class was almost over, he reached forward and lightly flicked Yukiko in the back of the head. Upon receiving a glare for his troubles, he smiled and said, "Wanna hang out?"

"We're in the middle of class," Yukiko whispered back, trying to not attract the attention of the teacher.

"I meant after school. Did you think that we would suddenly just jump up and yelled, 'We're going to go hang out! See you later, bitches!'"

"If it came from you, I don't think anyone would be shocked."

"Not at all," Chie said, jumping into the conversation briefly.

"So, is that a yes, or…?"

Yukiko smiled. "Yes, Yu-kun. Besides, I have that food you wanted to taste."

"Now that's just asking for death," Chie told him.

"Yeah, Yukiko told me that. But I don't care."

"If you say so."

"That's what I said!" Yukiko laughed.

The bell rang and everyone started to pack up.

* * *

The two teens walked down to the floodplains. Yukiko rather hesitantly presented a small box to Yu which contained her attempt at cooking. "I _think_ it came out good," she said, hopeful, as he popped the lid off.

An unusually pungent scent flowed from the opened container and invaded Yu's nostrils. He very nearly gagged, but refrained from the action to avoid making his friend feel bad. Forcing a smile on his face, he shouted, "Alright, let's eat!"

Carefully, he picked up a piece of what appeared to be an omelette and stuck it in his mouth. As he was chewing, he noted that it was soft, but… there was something akin to a rock in the middle. He quickly determined that he'd break his teeth if he tried to bite through it. After a couple seconds, he also came to the conclusion that it wasn't safe to swallow it. And by 'it,' he meant the whole damn thing.

He very nearly spit it out right there, but then he remembered Yukiko was there. He could only partially see her expression from his gaze that had set itself on the box he held, but it was seemingly a look of extreme concern. Not wanting to make her feel bad, he somehow made himself swallow.

He glanced at Yukiko with a plastered on smile. "Well, it's not a death sentence, I can tell you that," he told her.

"It's not good, is it?" Yukiko asked him.

"Far from it," he replied honestly, the smile dropping immediately as he finally allowed himself to gag. "I'm sure practice helps, though. You've been hanging around chefs at the inn all your life, right? And they always cook for you, yeah? You've never had to learn. So, I'm not too surprised by the outcome."

Yukiko brightened up, and a small smile formed on her face. "Thanks, Yu-kun. You're really good at cheering people up, you know that?"

"Ironically, I never really interacted with people on this level until moving here."

"Really? It doesn't seem like it." She stood, carefully taking the box from Yu, fastening the lid on it, and thankfully blocking off the terrible smell emanating from it. "We need to get rid of this."

"And where are you going to throw it? The garbage; and let the raccoons get it?"

"Do we even have raccoons here?" Yukiko briefly wondered. "The river, then?"

"No, think of the fish," Yu replied.

A moment passed as Yukiko thought. "How about… just the ground, then?"

"Again, raccoons, but more concerning is that it would probably kill all the plants in the general area, and the worms, and the gophers, and the birds, and every other creature that gets near it."

Yukiko looked shocked for a moment before pouting. "How rude!" She yelled.

Yu laughed lightly at her reaction, taking the box from her and throwing it in the nearby trash bin. "Sorry, I was just joking. It probably wouldn't kill anything if it has a strong stomach. Besides, I think they'd have the common sense to get away when they smell it."

Yukiko smiled for a moment before dropping it. "Was it necessary to take that joke as far as you did?"

Yu shrugged. "Most likely not. I said I was sorry!"

(Insert interesting transition here)

* * *

Upon getting home, Yu remembered that he had earlier taken up a tutoring job. So, after waiting for a couple hours, he got up and walked up to his uncle, how happened to be home for once.

"Yo," he greeted, raising his hand in a lazy wave. "I got a nice late-night job. You aren't going to stop me, are you?"

Dojima stared at him for a moment before sighing. "Fine. But be gone before I change my mind."

Yu smiled and nodded, running out of the house.

At the house of the child that he was to teach, of whom was named Shu… Yu immediately realized the kid was a little prick. What gave it away? The following statement:

"I'm not going to your Yasogami," he made clear as soon as his mother was out of the room. "You're only here because you were the only option. If you don't meet my standards, or annoy me in any way, you will be replaced, got it?"

Yu really wanted to be a smartass and say, 'If I'm the only option, how do you plan to replace me?' He also wanted to say, 'Man, what a little prick you are.'

Both of those options wouldn't win him points with the boy, though, so he settled on the less mean option of nodding and saying, "Very well then. Let me know if I do anything wrong."

Shu nodded in return and told him, "I don't have any subjects that I'm particularly bad at, so I'll let you choose what we start on."

Yu studied the boy. Thin, and obviously a stereotypical nerd. Perfect.

With a straight face, he suggested, "Why don't we start with physical education?"

Shu started at him blandly and remarked, "Not funny."

"I don't know, I thought it was pretty great," Yu replied before selecting math.

Yu was honestly quite surprised when he wasn't kicked out at any point throughout the lesson. He quickly started to be a smartass at every point he could, if anything because he was _hoping_ to get thrown out of the house because the kid was a massive pain in the ass. But, surprisingly, the annoying child rolled with his shenanigans rather well.

In the end, though, he was told that he was a keeper and sent on his way with a fine amount of extra yen, a whole 10,000 to be exact, in his pocket.

* * *

(June 1st) (Wednesday)

During lunch, Yu was approached by some random girl. "You, yeah you," she said, the closest she got to a greeting. "Why don't you ditch class with me?"

Yu was a tad bit stunned by this offer. "And I would do that because…"

"Because I'm fun and popular. Everyone will like you if they know that you got to skip with me."

"I never even heard of you before," Yu informed her.

"You don't even know my name," the girl snapped. "I'm Ai Ebihara."

"Still never heard of you," Yu replied.

The girl's eye twitched. "Are you coming or not?"

Yu shrugged. "I don't see why not. I have yet to learn one new thing in any of my classes. Watch, today would be the day if I wasn't going to skip."

Ai smiled. "Good. Meet me at the shoe lockers later." She turned on her heel and walked away.

Yu called out to her before she could get far. "Wait, do you even know my name?"

Ai stopped. "Nope, and I don't want to."

Yu stared at her as she wandered off. "Why did I agree to that?" He asked himself.

Regardless of his questioning on his choice, when the bell signaling the end of lunch rang, Yu made his way down to the shoe lockers. They walked out of the school like they owned the place, and no one stopped them.

* * *

20 or so minutes later, they got off the train that took them to Okina City.

"Isn't it a good feeling to know that everyone is stuck in a stuffy classroom while we're out here, free as birds?"

"Technically, if I were truly as free as a bird, I would be soaring through the air right now," Yu replied apathetically. "But I do agree; I hate school."

"You know, when I looked at you, I just knew that you were the one that I wanted to take with me," Ai commented. "You had this air about you, like you'd never done anything bad, and really needed to."

"Yeah, I'm pretty much the prefect child," Yu told her. "Good grades, doesn't talk during class, pays attention, or at least look like I do. This is the first time I've done something crazy outside of weirding my friends out with my shenanigans. Kind of nice."

"It's good every once and awhile," Ai agreed. "Unfortunately, I haven't gotten to do it lately because they've been really strict about my attendance, so I've had to be a good girl." She started walking, waving for Yu to follow. "Come along, then. We'll start with clothes, then hit the jewelry store, and then check out the shoes. If we have enough time in the end, we'll look at the phones on the way back."

Upon hearing this long list, Yu very nearly bolted. But he took a deep breath and forced himself to follow her. Why? He didn't quite know. He didn't know, nor like, the girl in the slightest. Maybe he just wanted to see if this would have some sort of reward. At the very least, he should get a candy for putting up with this girl's shopping spree.

What was most certainly many hours later, Ai finally stopped and allowed Yu to sit down. He had been given the loveliest of all tasks, carrying the bags.

Letting out a tired sigh, he asked, "Got some money to burn there?"

Ai smiled. "Yeah, my dad makes a fortune with his job." She looked at the clock on her phone. "We need to get back to the school. After class ends, I have to go see the guidance counselor. He checks my attendance and grades before putting the cherry on top, lectures that go on for hours. Seriously, one time he took so long my dad got worried and called the school to see if they knew where I was. What a pain in the ass!" She let out an annoyed huff. "I'm out here, and the teachers are unsuccessful in noticing every time, without fail. They're stupid."

"I have to agree with you," Yu chuckled as he stood, slowly gathering all the bags. "Ever meet King Moron? We call him that for a reason."

"Yeah, I ran into him once, unfortunately. If I never see say hello to his ugly-ass mug again, it'll be too soon. You know, I had fun today; you aren't like the others that I've dragged out here. We should do this again sometime. After school, though. I don't want to risk running into any trouble."

Yu thought to himself, 'You can, if you can find me.' He finished gathering the bags and they returned to the school.

* * *

Back at the school, Yu, rather surprisingly, was easily able to glide right into his seat without anyone noticing.

He was almost immediately pelted with notes from his friends, all of which read, 'Where the hell did you run off to? If you do it again, can I come?'

Yu had to try to hide his amused snort. Were they chatting with each other about what to say to him?

After successfully explaining to his friends, having to write the same message on three different slips of paper, and getting out of school, Yu walked down to retrieve that damned dog from the ema. He'd been feeding the damn creature for somewhere near a week now, ever since finding out where it hung out. Every time, though, it ran away. And so now, he was fed up.

Yu approached the dog, a kind, but entirely fake smile plastered onto his face. When he got near, he lunged forward and grabbed the dog, ignoring its yips, barks, and even the bites as he wandered about in an attempt to find the owner. Eventually, he found the kid who claimed it was theirs and Yu handed the dog over. The boy ran off to get money to pay the shrine. Yu made his way over there, too.

"Yo, fox," he called out when he was sure no one would be coming.

The fox barked.

"15% now?" Yu asked.

The fox barked.

"Good. Next ema, please."

The fox barked and ran off, returning with a new ema reading, 'I wish I had friends.'

Yu nodded and walked away. He encountered the kid, or, at least, he assumed it was the kid, who wrote the ema while passing through the floodplains. He didn't talk to him directly, but heard him muttering to himself. "Stupid morons, saying I need a special sticker to be cool." He huffed. "I hate people."

'And this kid wrote an ema asking for friends?' Yu thought to himself before shrugging and walking away.

Yu went home after that, listening to the now familiar, "Welcome home big bro!" Then he heard something that he didn't quite expect. "A package arrived for you, so I put it on the table."

Yu glanced at said package, approaching it and opening it. Inside was the medical kit he had ordered. Thanking Nanako, he went upstairs to store it where his family would not see it. He didn't want to explain.

"Hey, Nanako-chan," Yu called out upon returning downstairs. "Have any stickers that are popular with your age range on you?"

Nanako nodded. "Why?"

"I need one."

Nanako frowned. That wasn't much of an answer. Regardless, she retrieved one for him. He looked at it. It was a popular character he'd seen on cartoons his cousin watched on occasion. Good enough for him, and hopefully that kid.


	14. The King Whose Specter Was Stolen

**You have foxchick to thank for reminding me to get this out. Sorry people!**

 **By the way, speaking of her... I never announced what each person's animal will be... In the original, I ended having to consult with I swear upwards to half a dozen people about the issue because I had this weird phase where the characters started with cat ears, and eventually I decided that needed to change. Eventually, chapter 44 rolled around, and only then did I really confirm who had what animal.**

 **If you _really_ want to know before it happens in-story (of which will take a while) then go to chapter 34 and (after laughing hysterically at my horrible writing) head to the bottom A/N. That was still a planning phase, but only Kanji's spirit and Chie's spirit are different. And even then, you can just switch them, not too hard.**

* * *

Chapter 12

(2nd) (Thursday)

Even though it was raining heavily, Yu went out after school wandering this way and that in a vain search for that boy who wanted a sticker for some pathetic friends. Surprisingly, it wasn't as vain as he expected, and he found the child sitting in the wet grass, looking quite miserable.

"Wow, talking about being melodramatic," Yu commented to no one in particular as he approached the sulking child. "Not to mention cliché. Sitting in the rain and probably crying, but no one can tell because his whole face is wet."

Walking over, Yu positioned his umbrella over the kid to block a bit of the rain. The child looked up, confused that his perfect, overdramatic rain was suddenly gone.

"Um, good morning, mister," he greeted.

"Mister?" Yu asked as he sat down. "I'm not that old, am I?"

"You've got white hair," the boy replied.

Yu frowned. "It's silver, and it's a genetic thing! I'll have you know I'm 17." Taking a deep breath, he said, "Moving away from that… you really shouldn't sit in the rain like that. You'll catch a cold. Why were you moping, anyway? You're too young for that."

The boy grunted. "I don't have any friends, all because I don't have a dumb sticker. I don't get it."

Yu raised an eyebrow. "Well, I don't know why you're trying to hang out with them, then. I mean, if they can't accept you as a friend for who you are, then they won't be your friends for very long. However," Yu pulled out the sticker, holding it out to the kid, "they should hopefully do until you can get some real friends."

The boy gaped at him for at least a full minute before brightening and gingerly taking the sticker from Yu's hand. "I-I can have this…?" He asked slowly, unsure of how to react.

Yu nodded and stood. "I don't see why not. Now go home before you get sick."

The boy got up. "I have to pay the shrine first!"

"You have money on you?"

"Yep!"

"Why? What responsible parent allows a five year old boy to run around with money?"

"I'm older than five!" The not five year old yelled. "I'm freaking seven!"

"Oh," Yu chuckled. "Sorry. Well, if you have the money, go do that, then, alright?"

The boy nodded and ran off with a smile on his face.

Heading over to the shrine at a much slower pace, Yu hoped that the next ema wouldn't be as much of a pain to complete. He didn't empathize well with people, let alone children who are five (sorry, seven) and have friend issues.

At the shrine, the fox barked.

"20% now, yeah?"

The fox barked.

"Good enough for me."

The fox barked.

"Wait, what?"

The fox barked.

"No, you're kidding."

The fox barked.

"There isn't an ema…?"

The fox barked.

"Goddammit."

The fox barked.

"I'll be back."

The fox barked as a goodbye.

* * *

After Yu was done with dinner and washing the dishes, he decided to go to the other late night job he picked up, cleaning the local hospital. Exciting stuff, isn't it?

While there, he cleaned with complete apathy to everything beyond the feeling that something should pop out at him and scare the ever living shit out of him as though he was in a horror movie/video game.

Regardless of this strange feeling, Yu did perfectly fine for another couple minutes. But then _she_ showed up and almost made him scream like a fucking little girl.

"Hey there, boy," said a nurse that walked. Oh yes, did I forget to mention it was just a nurse? Frightening, isn't she?

Yu took a deep breath and mentally slapped himself for almost letting out a scream that would suggest she was attempting to murder a small child.

"Oh, did I scare you?" The nurse asked with a laugh.

"No…" Yu replied.

The woman laughed some more.

'This is going to be a long night, isn't it?' Yu asked himself.

"I'm sorry," the nurse apologized. Honestly, though, she probably wasn't. There was no sympathy in her voice at all. "Play too many horror games?" She asked, as though mocking him.

"No, I don't play those," Yu replied with a small annoyed huff, turning back to his cleaning and hoping that the nurse would just leave him alone.

"Funny," the woman laughed.

"What's so amusing?" Yu asked, getting more annoyed by the second, though he attempted to keep it out of his voice.

"Nothing."

Yu sighed mentally. "So, are you just here to annoy me, or…?"

"You're blunt, aren't you?" There was a small pause. "I like that."

Yu stiffened. 'Should I ask why…? No, that's stupid.'

"I'm sorry; I never introduced myself, did I?" The nurse asked. "I'm Sayoko Uehara."

Yu didn't respond, instead choosing to continue cleaning while thinking, 'Go away. Go die in a hole, go die in a fire. I don't care, leave my presence! …God, I sound like an irritated king.'

Sayoko walked closer to him. Yu's eye twitched in annoyance as she grabbed his hand. "You're skin is so smooth. I like that. When are you coming next? I'll adjust my shift accordingly."

Yu really wanted to respond with something snappy that would hopefully get her to back the fuck off. Unfortunately, that could very well get him fired, and though he could live off the tutoring money for the whole year, he didn't want to push his luck with the little prick. He could easily get fired over there, and then what would he have? Empty pockets, if he wasn't smart with what was left of his money, that's what.

For some reason, even though Yu had yet to respond or do anything that would imply that he wouldn't, Sayoko told him, "I'll see you again," and left. Yu was left somewhat dumbfounded, because even though he hadn't spent more than a whole minute with her, he was already freaking the fuck out on the inside and wishing he had never taken up the job.

With a groan, he returned to his cleaning until his shift was over.

* * *

(3rd) (Friday)

Because he lacked anything better to do, Yu decided to see if there was a new ema at the shrine.

"Yo, fox," he called out.

The fox appeared with a dramatic leap from the top of the shrine. He barked.

"You get a new ema?"

The fox barked.

"…Can I see it?"

The fox barked. He ran off and eventually returned with said ema. Yu took it.

"'I wish my life had meaning again,'" he read. He raised an eyebrow. "What, will this guy go suicidal or something if he doesn't get that meaning?"

The fox fixed him with a bland look.

Yu shrugged. "Whatever. I'll just take that as a 'no.'"

The bland look didn't leave the fox's face.

Yu rolled his eyes, handing the ema back to the fox. "Fine, I'll get on that."

The fox barked and took the ema back.

"What do you mean, 'I'd better?' I'm only doing this for my benefit; I'll do it if I want!"

The fox barked.

Yu let out a defeated sigh. "I guess that's true." He turned on his heel and left.

As Yu was walking down the road, he heard someone to his left said, "Well, you look like you've lost your life meaning there, kid."

Yu looked up. "Not really," he answered slowly. He stared at the tired old man. "But you do."

The man laughed. "You're spot on there, kid!" He studied Yu for a second. "Do I know you…?"

Yu stared critically at the man. "Yes, yes, you do. You gave me a model to put together some time ago."

The man snapped his fingers. "That's right! Did you ever finish that?"

Yu hardly had to think before replying, "What, you think I'm so cold-hearted as to not do something with a thing I was gifted? I'm wounded, dear sir."

The man fixed him with a blank stare. "You didn't finish it, did you?"

Yu's jaw dropped. "Damn, I thought I had hidden it so well, too!"

The man let out a hearty laugh. "My friends used to do stuff like that all the time; I see right through it!"

Yu snapped his fingers in mock frustration. "Damn! Guess I'd better get on that, huh?"

"You don't have to if you don't want to."

Yu shrugged. "But I do want to; I just got caught up remembering what having a proper social life is like."

The man snickered. "Fair enough. Let me see it when you've completed it, yeah?"

Yu started to walk away, before spinning around dramatically and pointed at the man. "Of course, man!" This earned a chuckle from the man, who pointed back in a similar fashion before they parted.

* * *

Yu walked away from that conversation feeling rather guilty. He had spent all of several months either out with friends, killing TV monsters, or sleeping. Yes, he'd worked on the model at various points in time; in fact, it was very nearly done, though it was missing a number of key features. He'd have to get on that…

In fact, he decided that, because it was an ema request, he had nothing better to do, and he just plain felt horrible, he decided to go straight home to finish as much of the model as possible before the day was done.

By the time that dinner was ready, he had finished all but the head, but he figured that he would save it for the next day, as the man was likely long gone by that point.

After having his food, Yu decided rather stupidly that he felt like going to work at the hospital with the creepy ass nurse.

As with the day prior, the woman popped up out of nowhere seemingly just to vex him.

"One of these days, you're going to give me a heart attack," he informed her after taking a deep breath to calm his semi-quick heartbeat, to which she chuckled.

"Well, good thing that you're already in a hospital with a trained nurse, then," she replied.

Yu raised his right hand and waved his index finger about in a circle in mock enthusiasm while continuing his cleaning with his left hand. "Lucky me," he said sarcastically.

The woman pouted. "Don't sound so excited, dear."

"We're talking about me having a heart attack; do you expect me to be jumping up and down like a kid that got everything he wanted for Christmas?"

Sayoko smiled. "Fair enough, I guess."

Yu grinned, satisfied with her answer for once.

There was a buzzing, and Sayoko looked down. "Oh, I'm being paged. See you later, boy."

Yu was surprised that it didn't take long for the woman to leave his side, but he was glad nonetheless.

After finishing up for the night, he moved to take his leave, pausing when he saw an old woman wearing all black, likely a mourning dress. He tried to not disturb her, as she looked rather unhappy, naturally.

She glanced at him, and muttered, "My, my," before turning and leaving the area. Yu blinked, confused. He shrugged after a moment. It wasn't his place to talk to her and inquire as to why she looked at him like that, as she was likely in distress.

* * *

(4th) (Saturday)

"Bored!" Yu announced, slumping in his seat immediately after the final bell rang.

"Dude, it's been literally two seconds since you were released from this hell-hole, and you're already complaining about boredom?" Yosuke asked.

"Do you honestly expect any less?" Yu asked in return.

"Nope," Yosuke replied, sounding rather defeated.

"There you go."

"Why don't we go to the other world," Yukiko suggested, causing Yu to perk up.

"That's a great idea! Bludgeoning evil blob monsters is always a great time waster!"

"That's all you want to go there for, wasting time? Weren't you complaining about a model you had to finish?" Chie asked.

Yu glanced out the window. It was starting to rain heavily.

"Yeah, I was. But there's no sense in finishing it up today if he isn't going to be there for me to show him. I don't have enough of it left to occupy me for more than a couple minutes. Besides, I'm not sure how it would react to water. It's not made of the sturdiest of materials, after all."

Yosuke nodded in understanding. "To Junes, then?"

Yu pulled himself to his feet. "To Junes," he repeated.

* * *

"There's something interesting going on!" Teddie announced no more than five seconds after Yu hopped through the TV.

Yu cocked his head to the side in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"There's a powerful presence inside of Yukiko-knight's castle!" Teddie informed him.

"I'm not a knight, and that isn't my castle!" Yukiko yelled unhappily.

Yu crossed his arms. "We'd better check it out. It might cause problems later, otherwise. Besides, it's good for wasting time."

The rest of his group nodded in agreement.

* * *

It didn't take long to get to the top of the castle. All of the Shadows they met while calmly walking up ran away like they carried the plague.

And they did, technically.

The plague of DEATH BY STEEL!

…Ahem, anyway…

At the throne room, sitting on the throne like a regal king, only not because it was fast asleep, was what appeared to be a grown up version of the prince that accompanied Shadow Yukiko to her fight.

Because it was asleep, Yu saw little reason in waking it, so he carefully walked towards it, taking things slow to lower the sound of his shoes clicking on the floor. Eventually, he stood in front of the faux ruler. He calmly raised his sword and brought it down, stabbing the creature in the chest, where its heart would be, if it had one.

The Shadow's eyes popped open and it looked at him like, 'Dude, what the fuck!?'

Yu blinked in surprise, having expected the Shadow to simply dissolve. Swiftly, he was bat away like an annoying fly.

"Ah, shit!" Yu groaned unhappily, jumping to his feet as his team came to his side. "Alright, let's go kill some people, er… evil blob monsters!" He yelled as he charged at the Shadow, who had jumped down from his throne and pulled the katana from its chest, tossing it to the side, or, more specifically, through a window. Yu stopped and stared.

"Yo, man, not cool! Do you know how much that cost?!"

The Shadow shrugged uncaringly.

"Well, fuck you too," Yu growled, crossing his arms, clearly indignant.

The Shadow seemed to frown and attempted to bash him over the head with its scepter, which he quickly dodged with an unnecessarily fancy spin.

"Hey, don't just stand there!" Yu yelled at his friends. "Do something!"

"Nah, we're just going to stand here to annoy you until you kill it," Yosuke said sarcastically.

"I will fucking murder you all," Yu threatened only semi-playfully.

Yosuke, Chie, and Yukiko joined in on the battle, and it wasn't long before the Shadow seemed to be about to keel over.

"Ready to give up?" Yu asked it mockingly, to which it glared and raised its scepter.

"Rampage!" Teddie yelled, running out of the room, much to everyone's confusion.

While they were distracted, the Shadow brought down the makeshift weapon, first bonking Yu over the head with it, likely because it was just indignant from the earlier question, and then slamming it into the ground.

The following five seconds were as close to a living hell as one could get. Yu could only really describe it as being murdered a thousand times over, but being left alive because his enemy had reviving powers and wanted to see him suffer.

When the attack was over, Yu allowed himself to flop to the ground akin to a dead fish being dropped on the counter. He glanced at the rest of his team, only to find that they weren't doing any better than him.

Yukiko somehow gethered enough inner strength to summon her Persona to heal them, and Yu managed to pull himself to his feet. The Shadow, understandably, had an 'Oh, shit!' look on its face.

Yu, with an almost devilish smirk on his face, rushed for the Shadow, which turned and fled like a frightened child.

"Yeah, you'd better run!" Yu yelled, giving chase. It wasn't long before they were just running in circles.

From a distance, the scene actually looked quite comical, and the rest of the eared group just sat there, watching, except Yukiko, who was trying to figure out where Teddie ran off to.

Eventually, the Shadow wised up and stopped, spinning around on its heel and swinging its scepter at its enemy's face. Yu didn't have any time to react, and thus was smacked upside the head.

He fell to the ground, groaning and clutching his probably dented face.

The rest of the Spirit group jumped up and ran to help him. The Shadow king, however, was going to have none of that shit and unleashed another Rampage. This time, while everyone was alive, they were all knocked unconscious.

Yu awakened after only a brief moment by some miracle, however, it was worthless, anyway, because his limbs were nothing short of jell-o and refused to move. The Shadow king walked over to his prone form and smirked cruelly, raising his scepter. It was highly likely that the silver haired boy wasn't going to survive much longer.

'Well, I wonder how my uncle is going to react when he somehow catches wind that I died because I was fighting a giant, evil, faux king?' Yu asked himself. 'He wouldn't believe it. Or would he? Damn it all, now I'll curious!'

Yu let out an annoyed sigh and closed his eyes, waiting for his impending doom. Shockingly, it didn't come. He heard a struggle, though. He opened his eyes again as was greeted by the humorous sight of Chie bashing the poor creature over the head with its own scepter, yelling, "Don't beat up our leader, you son of a motherfucking bitch on a stick!"

Yu stared for a couple seconds, amazed by her… colorful word choices. Then, he couldn't help it, and started laughing. He was laughing so hard that he failed to notice a healing wave wash over him until Yosuke dragged him to his feet, and he didn't just collapse, though because he was laughing so hard, he almost did anyway.

"Dude, it isn't that funny," Yosuke said.

"Does she commonly call people 'sons of motherfucking bitches on sticks'?"

Yosuke looked shocked. "This is your first time hearing her yell that?"

Yu's jaw dropped.

Yukiko looked thoughtful as she said, "Well, she does usually only say it when playing a frustrating RPG…"

Yu laughed nervously. "Can we just kill it now?"

"No, let Chie have her fun," Yosuke told him.

"Think she'll want to keep the staff after this is over with?" Yukiko asked.

"Most definitely," Yosuke replied casually.

"Won't it just dissolve with the rest of the Shadow?" Yu asked, sounding much too hopeful.

"We can only hope," Yosuke replied.

Yu looked around. "Hey, where's Teddie?"

"I don't know," Yukiko told him. "I looked for him, but I couldn't find him. I think he got frightened and ran off when the Shadow used Rampage."

"Wimp," Yu commented.

Eventually, after what was most likely several hours, the Shadow finally died. Unfortunately, the staff refused to cease to exist, and remained in Chie's hands, which she then held up dramatically in victory.

"Are we going to allow her to keep that?" Yosuke asked.

"I'm afraid to take it from her," Yu admitted. "I don't know where she finds the strength to wield it, but she has it… and she knows how to use it."

"As long as she doesn't use it on us, we should be fine," Yukiko reassured the boys.

"But that staff is almost as tall as her; she'll probably swing it and smack us on accident!" Yu complained.

"Oh, and your katana is better?" Yosuke asked. "That thing's sharp, man."

"Yeah, but I got a little training as a kid."

"You did?"

"My mom was trying to find ways to occupy my time," Yu said. "Plus, I'm careful around you guys!"

"I know you are, but it still makes me nervous."

"Then I should be nervous about how you're constantly juggling your kunai!"

"Guys, quit arguing before I bash you over the head with my new toy."

Both of the boys froze in fright. They slowly turned their heads in Chie's direction.

"Yes, Chie-san," both boys answered automatically, turning and bowing to her, much to her and Yukiko's amusement.

"Now, then," Chie said, twirling her new staff around, accidently bonking it on Yosuke's head and sending him crashing to the ground. She cringed when she saw this and stopped. "Uh… Sorry, Yosuke. Let's return. Several hours have surely gone by."

Yu helped Yosuke up and then the two of them rushed out, completely forgetting that they could use a Goho-m.

* * *

(At the Dojima house…)

"After several days, the rain has finally ceased, and a thick fog is expected to soon set in the Inaba area," the announcer, well, announced to the audience. "As usual, Inaba's residents should be advised to be extremely cautious until it clears up."

Yu sighed inwardly. Don't get him wrong, he was happy they had succeeded in saving Kanji, but he was too tired to watch the aftermath. Of course, at least he wasn't Yosuke. His fellow male probably had a concussion, or at least a pounding headache, from getting bonked by that scepter.

Regardless of what he wanted to do, Yu decided it best to remain awake.

At midnight, he was met with a blank screen. With an annoyed sigh, Yu retired to his bed, falling asleep in a new record of 3 seconds.

* * *

 **I nearly doubled the word count for this chapter! I'm satisfied.**

' **Son of a motherfucking bitch on a stick' is what I've started yelling at my TV (At least, at the time of writing that part of this chapter, on the 16** **th** **of April, 2016) when something goes wrong in Pokemon XD: Gales of Darkness. It's starting to leak into my real life, too. Whoops… Don't even know how I started that… (I'm irritable when it comes to things like that)**


	15. Kanji's Initiation

**Okay then, apparently I uploaded this chapter (or, more accurately, its pathetic equivalent) on June 5** **th** **, with is my birthday. Neat!**

 **Decided that because I split up another chapter and therefore completed two this weekend, I'd upload a chapter _way_ earlier than I initially thought I would.**

 **Anyway, foxy-dear, you're finally getting your answer this chapter. Yay!**

* * *

Chapter 15

(5th) (Sunday)

Yu was walking around town, bored out of his mind again, but not willing to jump into the TV because of the disaster that was yesterday. He still felt drained from that experience.

At the shopping district, he saw Yosuke, and called out to him. Yosuke turned to him, looking as dead on the inside as he felt.

"Can we never go back into the TV?" He requested.

"Only if no one else is kidnapped," Yu replied. "But I know where you're coming from, at least."

Yosuke sighed. "I'm scared of Chie, now."

"Same," Yu groaned. There was a long silence. Eventually, Yu suggested, "Want to just… go back to my place and watch TV?"

"As long as whatever we watch doesn't involve Shadows or people beating other people over the head with oversized scepters," Yosuke answered.

"Don't worry; I'll switch it if that happens."

And so, the two boys dragged themselves back to the Dojima residence.

* * *

After several hours of watching TV, Yosuke regained some of his energy and insisted, "I want to see your room!"

Yu turned his head to look at Yosuke. "Why?" He asked.

Yosuke stood, seemingly intent on doing so regardless of what Yu had to say on the matter. "Because I want to see it!"

Yu forced himself to his feet, following closely behind. "That is not a reason!"

"What, are you scared of what I'll find?" Yosuke asked.

"No, I just don't want you to just barge into my room! Besides, it's a mess right now."

Yosuke reached the door and attempt to kick it open in a dramatic fashion. However, something he failed to take into account was the fact that it was closed, and he didn't have enough muscle in his flimsy limbs to knock it off its hinges, which was something Yu was eternally grateful for because otherwise his uncle would have tried to murder him.

Yosuke's foot connected with the door, which, predictably, didn't budge. Yosuke jumped back, clutching his foot and hopping on the remaining good one.

"That's called 'karma,' Yosuke, don't invoke it," Yu advised smartly.

"Yeah, I figured that one out," Yosuke grunted, gently placing his foot back on the ground. After ensuring that he didn't break a bone (Yu knew he didn't, he didn't exactly kick _that_ hard), Yosuke walked into the room like a semi-normal person, albeit with a slight limp.

Yosuke whistled. "This is dirty?" He questioned, gazing at the 'mess' that was Yu's room.

"Yeah, pretty horrendous, isn't it?" Yu asked.

"Dude, what do you consider 'clean', then?"

"Well, I need to get my sweater off the couch, get that book off the floor, and I need to throw away that wrapper over there in the corner." Yu pointed to each of the specified objects as he listed them, probably because Yosuke wouldn't have noticed them otherwise. "Oh, and I need to get that model finished and off the table."

"Dude…" Yosuke muttered with a small whistle, impressed. "So…" he wandered forward before continuing in an unnecessary low voice. "You keep the goods under the futon?"

Yu had a bad feeling about what he was asking, so he answered, "Totally, Yosuke," with the look on his face making it perfectly clear that he didn't have anything of the sort (or anything at all, for that matter) under where he slept.

Yosuke, luckily, picked up on this, and said, "You are frighteningly pure, ya know that?"

"Thank you, I try," Yu told him.

"OK, then… Oh, have you invited a girl in here yet?"

"I haven't _invited_ one, but I'm pretty sure that Naoto and Chie have gone up here when I was sick. Does that count?"

Yosuke thought for a second. "That's a bit of a grey area. I mean, where you even conscious?"

"Not that I remember. Probably not."

"Then I'd say no," Yosuke concluded.

Yu nodded happily at this.

Several hours passed, and Yosuke finally had to return home.

After he was gone, Yu spend a good couple minutes picking up the items that he had pointed out to Yosuke and putting them where they belonged, before he remember to finish the model.

After he was sure that his room looked good enough, he wandered outside with the model, enjoying the cool breeze.

With some immense luck, he spotted the man that he was looking for. He held out the model with a proud smile and said, "I made a thing!"

The man's jaw dropped and he somehow managed to carefully snatch it from Yu's hands, inspecting every finely put together detail. "This is amazing!" He yelled at the top of his lungs.

Yu cringed at the volume. "Thank you," he muttered.

"May I keep it? I'm sure it would be a great thing to show people about the power of models."

Yu smiled sheepishly. "It isn't that good," he whispered to himself. Raising his voice, he told the man, "Yeah, go ahead."

The man ran off happily without a second's hesitation. He was gone before Yu could yell at him to remember to pay the shrine.

And so, with a shrug, he turned to leave, a small smile gracing his face. That is, until Adachi popped up while he was rounding a corner.

"Feed me!"

"Ah!" Yu screamed like a little girl, startled.

Adachi busted up laughing. "Oh, man! You should have seen the look on your face! That was great!"

Yu crossed his arms, indignant. "What do you want?"

"I want food, duh."

"And you think I'll feed you because…?"

"Because I want it."

"You are such a little kid, you know that?"

"I am not!" Adachi stamped his foot on the ground, as though it'd help his case.

"Right..." Yu replied with an amused smile.

Adachi was the one with the crossed arms now. "Just feed me."

"What do I get for it?"

"My undying love?"

Yu thought for a moment. "Is it worth it…?" He asked himself.

"Please?" Adachi more or less spat.

"There ya go!" Yu congratulated. "I think I can stand to buy you a cabbage or something."

Adachi glared at him, to which he laughed. "I hate you," the older man informed him.

Yu playfully slapped him on the back. "Same to you, buddy. But in all seriousness, you want to follow me back home like a lost puppy? I'll feed you if you do."

Adachi blinked. "Uh, where my boss lives? I'll pass."

"But he isn't even there."

"I don't care. It's still weird, especially without his explicit permission."

Yu rolled his eyes. "Whatever. But you aren't getting any food from me, then."

Adachi hung his head. "Dammit," he muttered, turning and walking away, waving a half-hearted goodbye to Yu, who merely shrugged and returned home, without a shred of remorse.

* * *

(6th) (Monday)

After school, Yu arrived at the rooftop, finding everyone else was already there. Kanji had been released from the hospital and they planned to interrogate him.

Kanji and Yukiko were in the corner, lightly talking about whatever popped into their heads. Most of it was just catching up on what they'd been doing the last couple years since they last saw each other. Yukiko was currently laughing at what was presumably a funny story, which seemed to make Kanji happy, if the smile on his face was any indication. They seemed to be getting along fine, Yu noted with a smile; an unsurprising fact considering they were friends as kids. That would make integrating him into the group much smoother than if they hadn't been.

Over in the other corner was were Chie and Yosuke were. Yu wasn't listening to their conversation, but suddenly Yosuke was getting kicked in the gut. Despite not knowing the circumstances, Yu figured he deserved it anyway.

Clearing his throat, Yu crossed his arms behind his back and called out, "Order, order!" in his best official judge impression. Everyone turned their attention to him, and, admittedly, it made him feel powerful. "All rise!" He demanded. No one stood. "Ok, don't then, see if I care." Yu let out an exaggerated huff of annoyance.

Yosuke, Chie, and Yukiko were unfazed by this, but Kanji looked like he was worried that not standing may have hurt his new leader's feelings. Yukiko quickly told him, "He does weird shit like this. Don't worry about it. He regularly chats with a fox, in fact." This factoid clearly caused confusion for their newest member.

"Amagi!" Yu shouted, making Yukiko jumped. "Who gave you permission to chat?"

"Sorry," she squeaked.

Yu nodded happily. "Onwards to business, then," he said, turning to Kanji. "Kanji Tatsumi, where were you an hour before the kidnapping?"

"I was trying to not let myself get arrested and talking to Yukiko-chan since you ran off like a wimp."

"Right, right," Yu muttered, preparing his next question while also trying to keep his anger in check because he was just called a wimp. "Do you remember how you were kidnapped?"

"Ah, I… uh, heard the doorbell, so I went to see who it was. I think I blacked out after that."

Yu clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Thank you, your answer has been noted. Do you have any idea why you were kidnapped?" He inwardly cringed as he realized that his best official judge impression was starting to give him a sore throat. He tried to hide the discomfort from it, though, because he wanted to see his little act through until the end.

"What? Why the hell would I know the motivation for the sick fucker? I'm the victim here, not the investigator!"

"You're one of the investigators now," Yosuke informed him.

Yu nodded in agreement before moving on. "Why did your Shadow take the form of a bunny?

Kanji looked understandably flabbergasted. "Wha-? I don't- You already know the answer to that one, you moron!"

Yukiko stood. "Alright, calm down, Kanji-kun; don't let him get to you this early."

"You mean he'll do this shit all the time?" Kanji asked, seemingly frightened.

Yukiko nodded sadly, saying, "I already told you that." She looked to Yu with a mild glare. "Yu, seriously, stop acting like a judge. He's a teammate, dammit, not a plaintiff."

Yu sighed, reverting to his normal voice, albeit a slightly higher pitch to make it sound whinier as he said, "But that was fun!"

"Not for me, you whiny brat," Kanji snarled, crossing his arms.

"'Whiny'!?" Yu repeated.

"Dude, you are incredibly whiny, get over it," Yosuke chimed in. Yu looked at him like he'd just been stabbed in the back at the moment where he needed support the most. And, in a way, that is indeed what happened.

Chie piped up. "To get back on track… Kanji-kun, do you remember anything else of importance?"

Surprisingly, Kanji nodded. "Yeah, I remember regaining consciousness for just a moment, and there was this big black mass. I think it was before I was thrown in that other world. Does that have anything to do with anything?"

"Think it was a TV?" Chie asked almost immediately.

"What makes you think that?" Yu asked, mostly to see if she could explain her reasoning, just to fuck with her.

"It couldn't have been a Shadow, since it was outside the TV world, and what other 'black masses' could there possibly be if it was broad daylight?" She countered.

Yu smiled and nodded. "Good, but how do you know his eyes weren't closed?"

"They were open, man. That's why I was confused by it," Kanji informed him.

"Very well, then. But what if your sight was just failing you? That can happen."

"I'm sure that's true, because I swear I saw some light. It wasn't completely pitch back."

Yu nodded in understand. "Then it confirms the worst. The kidnapper… has a TV."

Most of the team merely rolled their eyes at this.

"Hey," Yukiko said to get everyone's attention before turning to Kanji. "Did you have to speak to the police? I did after my kidnapping, but there was so little I could provide them without sounding like I belong in a madhouse that they just kind of let me go within the hour."

Kanji nodded. "Yeah, I tried to tell them that there's a whole other world out there, but they just thought I was still hyped up on imaginary painkillers. I didn't have any proof back then, and now I doubt they'd listen to me long enough to show them any, like these…" He pulled off his hat, and there sat two yellow, white, and black furry ears, seemingly those of a cat of some sort, twitching this way and that, picking up sounds that his normal ears were unable to catch.

Everyone was silent for a moment, staring. The silence was broken when Yu exclaimed, "Alright, how the hell did you all get hats that have the same color scheme as the ears that you didn't even have?!"

Kanji shrugged. "I just grabbed the first one that fit on my head because I just wanted to go home and sleep."

"Same," Chie added.

"Pretty much," Yukiko said somewhat sheepishly.

Yu merely sighed.

"So… are you guys just playing detective? Is that why you were the ones to rescue me?" Kanji questioned.

Yu laughed lightly. "Basically. Though, that makes us just sound like little kids playing in our backyard."

Kanji nodded. "Count me in, then!"

"You want to be part of our little backyard gang?" Yu asked. "Gotta pass the initiation, then!"

"Dude-" Yosuke started to ask, but was promptly cut off by a hand in the face.

Yu smiled. "Let's just see what he can do…"

(On the way to the TV world…)

"You're going to need a weapon," Yukiko thought out loud.

Kanji stopped upon hearing this and started looking this way and that for a moment before running to a nearby alleyway, much to everyone's confusion. He came back clutching an old, beaten up folding chair in his hands.

"This should do, right?" He asked.

For a moment, everyone simply stared. Finally, Yu piped up. "A-are you sure you don't want something more sturdy? We can buy something, you know."

Kanji looked down at the poor, dead seat. "It should be able to get me past the initiation, right?"

"If you say so, dude," Yosuke muttered, still staring at the chair incredulously.

* * *

(Inside the TV world…)

"What are you doing?" Yu asked Teddie upon arrival.

"I'm thinking," the bear, who was crouched in as much of a fetal position as his body structure would allow, responded. "Don't question your king!"

"For the last time, you are not a king!" Yosuke yelled, exasperated.

"I am too!" Teddie snarled with enough ferocity that Yosuke took a step back in fear.

"Anyway…" Yu muttered. "Stop 'thinking' for a moment and come greet Kanji-kun!" He slapped the burly white dude on the back.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Teddie responded uncaringly. "I'm having a bit of a crisis now, and I don't appreciate my knights telling me what to do."

"Snappy, snappy," Yu said, pretending to be offended. "Anyway, if you need us, we're going to initiate our new member into the group. Have fun with your existential crisis or whatever."

The group made their way to Shadow Yukiko's castle, watching Kanji bash several low-power Shadows over the head until his folding chair broke. When that happened, he merely switched to his fists.

"Use your Persona!" Yu yelled, exasperated, while watching the twentieth fight.

"Oh, that's a thing!" Kanji yelled in return before summoning said creature, which was no less a burly white dude than its user, only taken to a less than logical extreme, was the color black, and was holding onto a lightning bolt.

Yu stared for several moments. "You know, I really shouldn't be surprised," he eventually muttered.

After several minutes of allowing the youngest teen to adjust to his new power, the group concluded that the initiation was complete, and they could all finally go home. As they got to the Exit TV, however, Chie stopped them.

"Wait guys," she requested, so everyone froze on the spot, even Yu, whose leg was half-way through their exit. Turning to Kanji, she asked, "Are you serious about catching the kidnapper?"

"Hell yeah!" Kanji responded.

"Then…" Chie reached to the side, and grabbed her nearby oversized scepter. "I gift you with this." She held out the weapon to him, which he took with a look of confusion, while Yu, Yosuke, and Yukiko looked shocked and somewhat horrified to see that thing again. "It has been a good friend to me, but I do feel that you can get a better use out of it."

Kanji looked over the scepter, clearly unsure of what to make of it. "Uh, thanks, I guess." He swung around to ask the others what the importance of the object was, but he accidently hit Yukiko in the head in the process, knocking her to the ground a few feet to the left. Dropping his new weapon, he rushed to her side. "Yukiko-chan! I'm sorry, I didn't mean it!"

"Dude, calm down," Yosuke said, summoning his Persona and making it cast a healing spell. "It was an accident. Can you see why she likes it, though? Damn powerful, that's what it is."

"Don't forget frightening," Yu reminded, before saying in a low whisper, "Very, very frightening."

"Are you insulting it?" Chie asked in a dangerously low voice.

Yu started sputtering in an attempt to get an answer out. Yosuke eventually had to slap him on the back to get him to stop sounding like a broken record. "No, we are not!" He finally spat out.

In the background of all this nonsense, Teddie was slowly growing more and more annoyed. Finally, he snapped and yelled at the top of his likely nonexistent lungs, " _Just go the hell away already!_ "

Everyone paused and looked to him.

"I said," he growled. "Go away! The king needs some alone time!"

The Spirit gang slowly backed away, surprised at the bear's ferocity. They all jumped through the portal leading out of the world as soon as they could.

* * *

(On the outside…)

"Hey guys, I just remembered something important," Kanji announced.

The group stopped walking and turned to look at him.

"What's up?" Yu asked.

Fishing about his pocket, the younger boy eventually produced a small notepad. "Some idiot was spying on you guys earlier, and when I scared him off, he dropped this. You know me, I'm not the smart type, so I'm not going to try and figure out what he was doing with it…"

Yu took the offered notepad, looking it over with everyone else gazing over his shoulders. Being able to hear each breath taken quickly became a nuisance, so he kindly asked, "Ever heard of a personal bubble?" Everyone, with sheepish grins on their faces, backed away, though stared at him as he attempted to study the notes. What he found both disturbed and impressed him.

On the earliest pages were various notes about how the first two members of the Spirit group had suddenly began wearing hats, making a theory about how the transfer students wanted to stick together in some strange way, and, at what appeared to be from a later date, was a note about how Naoto also wore a hat, and therefore they gained the idea from her. Yu couldn't help but find this cute, as it wasn't a _bad_ theory, per say, just very, _very_ off.

Later notes were more on the mark, but far less cohesive due to the handwriting becoming lazy, almost to the point where it had to be classified as chickenscratch, and took several moments of staring and re-reading before Yu could deduce anything from it. They marked the dates where Yukiko and Kanji had appeared on TV specials, as well as the days where they began wearing their hats, however, ultimately abandoned the idea within a couple pages because it only fit two people, though it was updated regardless when the person had spotted Kanji upon being rescued.

"This guy might have been onto something about the specials," Yukiko commented when Yu read it aloud. "After all, Chie got her powers trying to save me, and Yosuke wanted to explore the other world… so of course they wouldn't fit!"

"And we still can't figure out what the hell happened with Yu," Yosuke added. "He just seems to be a special nut."

"I guess we're just going to have to wait and see if we can't find anything else from this," Yu said with a nod. "This is great, though. I mean, it's a little scary that someone could find this out by stalking us, but I guess it's wise to see what someone out of the loop has to think on it."

"You should let your uncle know," Yosuke suggested. "He might be able to figure something else out that we can't."

Yu nodded. He was just about to suggest they go their separate ways when he heard an annoyed grunt and turned to look at who it was. Glaring at them was one of the snotty girls from Chapter 12… Oops, there goes the fourth wall.

"If you're not even going to window shop, do you mind getting out of the walkway?"

A sheepish grin plastered itself on Yu's face. "O-oh. Oops, sorry."

"'Sorry', my ass," the teen grumbled, walking away.

As they started walking, Yu leaned over to Yosuke. "Did you ever get them to leave you alone?"

"They bugged me once, but I threatened to bring in the cavalry, and they shut up."

Yu pat the other boy's back. "Well now, good for you." Jumping in front of his gang, he spun around and performed a dramatic bow. "Goodbye, gang. I must be off."

The remaining members watched him walk away.

"When did he get a flair for the dramatics?" Chie asked.

Shaking his head, Yosuke responded, "He's probably always had it. We just never noticed. Either that or our author got bored and decided to momentarily give him Raphael's personality."

Chie, and everyone else for that matter, stared at him for a moment in confusion. "…What are you even talking about?"

(At the Dojimas…)

Upon arrival, Yu found that Dojima had already returned, and had dragged Naoto with him. They had gathered around the table, while Nanako was resting on the couch, watching the TV. She turned down the volume when she noticed the older children were about to start talking to her father.

"Thanks," Naoto whispered as Yu sat. "He almost sent me to do his personal shopping."

"Personal?" Yu asked. "He never does the personal shopping."

"I think he just wanted me to get him some Kit-Kats."

"Wait, seriously?"

"I wouldn't say so otherwise."

"But where would you get them? I've looked; they aren't sold a whole lot in Inaba."

"He was going to sent me to the city."

Dojima cleared his throat loudly to gain their attention. Upon finding that they were looking to him and listening, he spoke. "Yu, you said that it's possible that people were getting kidnapped because they were on a TV special?"

Naoto looked to Yu with a questioning gaze, silently informing him that she was unaware of what they had stumbled upon.

Yu nodded and produced the notepad, handing it to his uncle, who quickly flipped through it. "Kanji spotted someone stalking us and scared them off. They left this behind. Probably dropped it in fright. The initial theory's far from correct, but I guess I can understand why they assumed so, but the second one… they wrote that the likely chance of it was so pathetic that it wasn't even worth thinking about, but they don't know enough, and I believe the people that get kidnapped are the ones that appear on the TV specials."

Dojima nodded, eyes glued to the pieces of paper, likely trying to figure out the less comprehensible bits like Yu had to. Finally, he sighed and said, "I suppose it makes sense. However, that doesn't explain you, Yosuke, or Chie."

"I don't know about me, but the other two are special cases, and I'll explain later, but I can vouch that they have a good reason for not being on the TV, but still have the animal bits."

With a sigh, Dojima tucked the notebook in his back pocket.

"Is that all?" Naoto asked.

"I suppose so."

"Why am I here then?"

"Um… Dinner?"

Lacking a decent reason to object, Naoto merely rolled her eyes and said, "Alright then."

"What're we having?" Yu asked.

"Sushi!" Nanako announced, popping off the couch and heading to the fridge, producing a box of semi-not really fresh fish.

Most of dinner was quiet, mostly because Dojima had removed the notebook from his pocket and was staring at it intensely again, and everyone found themselves immersed in watching him. They were so inexplicably interested that what set off the next lovely chain of events was very nearly missed.

Naoto felt something cold slap her cheek. Pausing halfway through the motion of placing shrimp in her mouth, she glanced about, spotting sushi lying by her side. Looking up, she asked, "Yu-kun, did you just throw sushi at me?"

Yu pulled his gaze away from Dojima, who also looked up, the spell broken. "What?"

Naoto pointed to the sushi at her side. "I asked if you threw sushi at me."

"Why would I? I mean, yeah, your expression would be, and is, hilarious, but that's wasting good food."

"You call this good food?" Dojima questioned, poking absentmindedly at his tamago, which appeared to be quite stiff.

"Ok, halfway decent food," Yu corrected. "Are you sure you didn't just miss?"

"I'm sure," Naoto reassured him.

"Personally, I think you're just crazy, but what do I know?"

"Very little, clearly."

"How rude!"

"Maybe it was a spooky ghost," Dojima suggested with an amused grin. "A soul of the lingering dead could have followed you home from work at the hospital!"

"Dad!" Nanako yelled. "You know I'm scared of ghosts; don't say that."

Chuckling, Dojima said, "Oops, I forgot that. Sorry, Nanako. Don't worry, ghosts aren't real. If they are, I dare one to slap me across the face right now!"

As luck would have it, there was then the sound of skin connecting with skin and Dojima's head twisted to the side, a stunned look adorning his face. Everyone's eyes widened, shocked. Yu jumped to his feet immediately, glaring daggers at nothing in particular.

"Who are you?" He demanded. "Show yourself!"

A transparent young girl standing on the table appeared with a dramatic flash that Yu had to shield his eyes from. When he could see again, he resumed glaring.

"What do you want?"

"To bug the heck out of you!" The child announced cheerfully.

Lowering his guard somewhat, he fixed the girl with a confused gaze. "Wait, what?"

"You heard me!" She said.

"And just how do you plan to do that?" Yu asked, suddenly feeling smug. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and smirked. "I'm the king of bugging people; I know everything that you could possibly try, therefore it can't work!"

Giggling, the girl asked, "Is that so…?" She teleported to Yu's side and stuck her tongue in his ear.

Reeling back and placing his hand over his ear, he yelled, "The fuck was that?!"

"Language around the children," the girl warned in a stern voice, waving her index finger in a scolding manner, before switching to a more cheerful tone. "Does it annoy you? I can't taste anything, so that doesn't bother me at all!"

"That's disgusting!" Yu yelled, trying to get the feeling out of his ear.

"Wait, do you have saliva?" Dojima asked somewhat randomly. "I mean, it would otherwise be nothing more than sticking a finger in there, right?"

"Oh, I can confirm it," Yu said, a thoroughly disgusted look on his face as he stuck his finger in his ear momentarily before he removed it, a thin trail of spit following, to which everyone cringed. "No taste, but saliva… a truly deadly combination."

"Man, am I glad I didn't try to play hero," Naoto commented.

Frowning, Yu said, "Yeah, I've learned my lesson." Turning his attention back to the ghost, he asked, "So, how do we get rid of you?"

The ghost put on a thoughtful face and stared into nothingness as she tried to come up with something. "You might be able to get me to leave… if you let me speak to the guy resting inside you."

Yu fell silent for a moment, and then asked, "Why? …Wait, 'Guy inside me'? There's a guy inside me?!"

The ghost nodded, though she looked somewhat confused. "Huh, must be a ghost thing. Yeah, you got another creature's soul resting there beside yours. I'm kinda interested in why he's there."

Yu went slack-jawed, attempting, and failing, to process this information. Eventually, he said, "I-um… Even if I wanted to allow you to talk to the guy, I didn't even know he was there! How are you supposed to talk to a guy I can't even contact?"

The girl shrugged uncaringly. "I don't know. But I want to speak to him, so I'm not leaving until then!"

Yu frowned and walked towards the girl, attempting to grab her by the back of the shirt so he could toss her on her ass outside. This failed, however, as his hand went right through her.

Giggling again, the child announced, "Nope, you can't do that!"

Grumbling about 'stupid fucking ghosts,' Yu jabbed himself in the stomach. "Yo, wake up, ya lazy asshole! I need a ghost gone, and you're the only one who can get rid of her!"

Surprisingly, a voice, a highly familiar one at that, responded, having the nerve to laugh at him. 'Oh, is that so?'

Yu decided to just roll with it and replied, "Yeah, now make yourself useful, freeloader!"

'You're going to have to relinquish control over your body…' The lost soul told him in a warning tone.

"I want it back, but… sure, whatever." Suddenly, something came to Yu, and he said, "Wait… I recognize your voice! You're the one who told me to eat that moldy pickle and fawned with me over the wolf plushy!"

Everyone stared at him like he was crazy, probably because he had a voice in his head telling him to eat rotten foods.

'Guilty as charged,' the voice replied. 'Now are we doing this, or not?'

"Fine, how do I do that?"

'Just don't stop me.'

"I wouldn't know how to do that if I wanted to anyway," Yu informed the voice.

He swore the voice smirk at this. This was especially strange since he was sure the creature didn't actually have a mouth at the moment. Maybe it was because he felt his own mouth curl into a small grin without his consent. He felt a prick in the back of his mind, and suddenly his body was moving without his mind telling it to. He likened it to what he'd read some people say Multiple Personality Disorder was like, feeling more like a passenger rather than the driver in the body.

Immediately after gaining control, the creature, who we will now dub 'Fluffykins,' started laughing manically.

Slowly standing, Naoto questioned, "Yu-kun?"

Fluffykins paused mid-laugh, his eyes darting towards her while his head stayed in place. "Nope, 'Yu-kun' is contained, never to emerge again!" He beat his chest triumphantly.

Recognizing the danger, Dojima shot up, shoving Nanako behind him protectively while she whimpered, "Daddy?"

Growling, Dojima demanded, "Give Yu his body back, now!"

Raising an eyebrow, Fluffykins said, "What?" His lips curled into a snarl. "His body? Excuse you, this is mine!" He waved the tail about with finesse. "This tail is mine. These ears," he lightly tugged on one, "are mine. Therefore, this body is mine!"

In the background, the ghost looked frightened. She muttered, "OK, I can see you have a bit of a demon infestation… I'll just leave you to that…" She then disappeared from view, floating through the walls. No one paid her any mind, though Fluffykins had a small desire to correct her on her terminology.

Naoto glanced to Dojima, silently asking him how to deal with this new threat. He was less than helpful, a hopeless and frightened look on his face.

Taking a step forward, Naoto said, "Yu-kun, I know you're still there, and though this is quickly turning into a cheesy anime, I'm going to say it anyway. Fight the weirdo!"

As a reward saying this, Fluffykins swiped at her, which she managed to jump away from in time. However, this had the unfortunate side-effect of making her trip over the table. Dojima managed to catch her before she hurt herself, luckily.

'Why are you doing this?' Yu thought towards Fluffykins, hoping his message would be received.

The other creature did in fact get the message, and replied, 'Because you stole my body, you motherfucking asshole!'

'I didn't!' Yu yelled desperately. 'I honestly don't know who you are, and I'm sorry you lost your body, but the one you've got now is mine!'

'Then why do you have my ears and tail, bastard?' The other creature's thought-voice was calm, almost too much so when saying this.

'That's what I'm trying to figure out!' Yu hissed. 'Please, that's my body and my friends; you can't take over my life! If anything, your current actions are going to get us killed!'

On the outside, Fluffykins lowered his attack stance, holding up a finger when Dojima made to speak.

'Why should I let you rule? You've only been using my powers with no regard until now.'

'I was using them because they were helping me get closer to finding out where they came from! I promise, I'll consult with you, and try to get you your own body back, but please, I need control back!'

The spirit sighed. 'Fine,' he stated. 'But I will wrestle control back if I determine that you won't be helping me.'

Yu growled in annoyance and forced his mind back into control, slapping himself just to ensure that he was the one who had power again.

Sighing in relief, he muttered to his uncle, "I'm in control now."

"What happened?" Dojima questioned.

"I convinced 'Sir Fluffybuns,' as I will now call him, to let me control my own self if I try to get him his body back." Fluffykins, as he will continued to be known as outside Yu's words, let out an enraged roar upon hearing his new name.

"Well, that's wild," Naoto breathed. "And just how do you plan on getting his body back?"

Yu shrugged. "Honestly…? No clue. I guess I'm just gonna wing it and hope for the best."

Something seemed to dawn on Dojima, and his face adopted a look of realization. "That thing said that the ears and tail was its, right?" Yu nodded, unsure of where he was heading with that train of thought. "What about your friends? Does that mean they have another sentient being within them as well?"

Eyes wide, Yu muttered, "That's going to make one hell of a conversation starter tomorrow…"

* * *

 **I was going to have Yu call him Lord McFluffybuns in reference to another story… but decided against it.**

 **Sorry 'bout the fourth wall breaking. I must have been really bored.**

 **So, _BACKSTORY TIME!_ Because I'm 90% sure way beyond half the readers didn't go through the original...  
The ghost was a random character I decided to make because I was bored or something. Her name was Rie. Ultimately, she was inconsequential, so she's been cut all but completely, giving way for an earlier introduction for Fluffybuns, who came in _way_ later in the original.**


	16. The Spirit He Called Sir Fluffybuns

**I blame my friend lkcsi for the wait.  
I wanted to work on chapter 21 a lot more than I have, but then she somehow got me to make a story about a French man being forced into dress and acting as an English usurper's queen while there's an angry German bickering with an undead warrior and an alchemist raids the usurper's treasury whilst a demon watches from afar and comments on it through a journal that no longer has a proper number for the entries. I am not fucking with you. It is beautiful to write. Welcome to Shovel Knight fanfiction, y'all. It is not that scary, but it is scary enough!**

 **Anyway, happy new year. Let's hope Trump doesn't murder us all! (I'm sorry Trump supporters, but he _is_ ordering for more nukes, and that's just begging for disaster.)**

 **Well, I hope you like good ol' Sir Fluffybuns/Fluffykins, because this chapter is just fucking full of him.**

* * *

Chapter 16

(7th) (Tuesday)

Yu woke that morning from not his alarm clock as he had been expecting. Instead, it was because a certain asshole spirit was yelling at him that the sun was rising, and therefore it was time to get up.

Yu rolled onto his side, glancing at his clock. "It's five-thirty!" He groaned.

'Yes, but I don't work with that time system,' Fluffykins informed him. 'The sun has appeared, and that's when I get up. So get up.'

"Why are you bothering me?" Yu whined.

'Because I'm not going to let you sit around on your lazy ass anymore! Now get up before I make you!'

"Fine, fine!" Yu yelled, annoyed. He pushed himself to his feet, and stumbled when his weary body didn't want to support him. He covered his mouth as he yawned, stifling the noise he subsequently made.

Realizing that he had nothing to do for another two full hours, he sat down on his couch and rubbed his eyes for a couple moments, trying to get rid of the cobwebs clogging his brain.

'Come on, get up, lazyass!' The spirit inside him yelled.

"Listen, Sir Fluffybuns," Yu growled. "I am not a morning person, and if I could, I would gladly kick your ass for waking me two hours before I absolutely need to!"

'Okay, I like the 'Sir', but Fluffybuns?!' The spirit asked incredulously.

"Yeah, I got to call you something, don't I?" Yu answered through another yawn.

The spirit huffed. 'For your information, I have a name!'

"Good for you," Yu replied, making it obvious that he didn't give a crap.

The spirit growled, and suddenly Yu found the control over his right arm was lost. It raised itself and swiftly slapped him.

"Ow!" Yu yelled. "The fuck was that for?!"

'You don't give two shits about me,' the spirit accused.

"Well, I don't care about who you are, but I do care about the fact that you just slapped me with my own hand!"

The spirit was about to reply, but stopped when there was a knock at the door. Yu turned his attention there as well.

The door opened and Nanako, looking very tired, popped her head inside. "Bro… who are you yelling at?"

Immediately feeling bad, Yu said with a soft voice, "Sorry Nanako. That spirit from yesterday is annoying me is all. I'll try to keep it down."

The young girl nodded and retreated to her own space.

Yu sighed and stood, getting dressed before doing some light stretches.

'What are you going to do?' Fluffykins asked.

"Well, it's obvious I can't remain in the house, so I'm going to do out and… actually, I don't know what I'm going to do. Maybe jog, or kick a tree or something."

The spirit fell silent as Yu set an alarm on his phone so he could gather his stuff before school.

Once outside, Yu looked one way, and then another and asked the spirit, "Which way?"

'Does it matter?'

"Not exactly."

'Then why ask?'

"Because I wanted to see what you'd say."

'I hope you realize that I haven't exactly been paying any attention to your world. I only wake up when you go to that place where you fight.'

Yu frowned as he took off to the right. "Then why are you bothering me now?"

'Because I was wondering how long it would take you to realize that I exist. Apparently it took the appearance of a ghost.'

"Speaking of that ghost… what happened to her?"

If the spirit could shrug, it probably would have. In fact, Yu felt his shoulders rise slightly without his permission though it was likely the other creature didn't mean to take control. 'She probably just started to haunt the hospital again. See if you can't seek her out the next time you go there.'

"Um, have you seen that place? I don't want to go back there, the nurse that I keep running into nearly made me scream like a little girl!"

'Just how dim are you? I just said that I never paid attention to your world. Therefore, I do not give a shit about what you're scared of.'

"I'm not scared of her," Yu whined, desperately attempting to defend himself. "She just startles me. She's consistently creepy."

Yu found himself rolling his eyes.

"Okay, will you stop that?"

'Stop what?'

"You're making me roll my eyes, shrug, and probably other various subtle movements I don't notice!"

'I'm not doing it on purpose.'

"Bullshit."

'No, I'm serious. I've never attempted to express myself while nothing but a soul trapped beside some other guy that stole my powers. I don't think there's much you can do about it.'

With a huff, Yu told him, "You'd better not get me in trouble because of this."

'How would I do that?'

"Someone tells me something, and you roll my eyes, they think I don't care, and suddenly whatever relationship we have is shattered. That's how."

The spirit hummed thoughtfully. Or, more accurately, he made Yu do it. Why? Well, he just wanted to bug the poor teen.

Yu grumbled unhappily. "Isn't there any other way for you to express yourself?"

He shrugged again. 'Your guess is as good as mine!'

Yu snarled to himself. 'Stupid ghost, making me wake up the weird spirit creature inside me.'

'I heard that.'

Yu froze in his tracks. 'You can hear my thoughts?'

'Haha, of course! You'd better avoid thinking anything… inappropriate, or I'll vocalize it to the whole town!'

Yu, despite being in the middle of the street, immediately assumed a fetal position, attempting to close off his mind from the intruder. 'Go away, go away, go away…' he thought to himself, with Fluffykins telling him smugly 'Nope' each time as though making a point at how fruitless it was to try to close off his mind.

Eventually, the 'nope's stopped, which Yu took note of immediately. 'Did I do it?' He asked himself excitedly.

'Nope,' was the infuriating reply.

Yu let out a tortured cry, not caring about the fact that he likely just alerted the people in the nearby area that something was wrong.

'Well, you got it briefly…' Fluffykins informed him.

There was a buzzing sound and Yu looked downwards, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his phone. He realized the buzzing was the work of the alarm he had set for himself earlier. He sighed happily, jumping up and jogging out of the area at the exact moment some random passerby appeared to check on whatever had yelled earlier.

* * *

Yu was not in a good mood at school, and it was very obvious. He continually grumbled to himself, occasionally shrugged, and impatiently tapped his foot on the ground regularly, with his other foot stomping on the first one to quiet it for a couple minutes before he let it go. The tapping would begin anew just minutes later.

In the middle of math, Yu had enough. 'Stop that!' He snarled.

'Why, I'm bored,' Fluffykins replied with an equally annoyed tone of voice.

'And I'm trying to learn,' Yu growled. 'Don't like it? Go to sleep or something!'

'You're the one who told me on the way here that I should try to learn about your world in case I ever have to take over for you for whatever reason.'

'Yeah, I know I said that, but you can sleep during class; honestly, I'm going to encourage it. You're disrupting me.' He looked to Yukiko, who was occasionally sneaking glances at him, worry in her eyes at his behavior. 'You're also stopping Yukiko's learning.'

'About her…' Fluffykins said. 'There's something familiar about her.'

'Like what?'

'I… I don't know. She just seems very familiar.' Yu's eyes flicked downward very briefly, as Fluffykins took control of it. 'I recognize that tail!' He realized, nearly screaming it through Yu's lungs, but managed to catch himself in time.

'What do you-' Yu paused. 'She's borrowing from a spirit too, isn't she? And you knew that guy, don't you?' He realized, his eyes widening slightly.

'Not a guy,' Fluffykins corrected. 'But yeah. She was-' he was about to tell his captor about part of his life, but stopped, realizing he had no reason to reveal such information. 'Your teacher's talking to you,' he said in distraction.

Yu snapped to attention. "W-what, sir?"

"I asked…" he paused, and decided to be mean. "How far it from here to the nearest star that man has tried to contact, in inches, plus or minus the rotation of the earth around the sun?"

Yu's jaw dropped while his classmates started to snicker.

'It's a trick question,' Fluffykins informed him.

'Thank you very little,' Yu replied.

'I know the answer…'

'What?!'

Yu looked to his teacher with certainty. "The answer to that question is 2. As is '2' far."

Now his instructor was the one with the dropped jaw. "I haven't told anyone that one in a long time! How?"

"Well, you can't answer with any sort of certainty with anything that doesn't dictate it's a trick, even if this is math. You paused; giving away that it was not the original question. So, I just came up with an answer that went under the pretense that it was nothing more than a joke, and should be treated as such. Did that make any sense?"

The teacher was unable to respond, so he just went back to the lesson.

'Okay, that was sweet. How'd you know that?' Yu asked Fluffykins.

'It's simple,' the spirit answered. 'It's the same as how you explained it. I just acted as though it was a joke, which it was.'

Yu's lips tugged themselves into a smug smile. 'I think I may just like having you around.'

As soon as the lunch bell rang, Yu jumped out of his seat, practically dragging his friends with him to the rooftop, garnering many a strange look from the people that were past.

"Yu, what's gotten into you?" Chie asked once the door had been closed.

Sitting down, Yu looked to his friends with a serious face and told them, "I have a voice in my head."

To his surprise, the three members of his group that stood before him merely started laughing.

"Wha- Guys!" He yelled, appalled.

Stifling his laughter, Yosuke told him, "Dude, we've suspected that for a long time now. Why else would you be so crazy?"

Yu started chuckling, but only because Fluffykins would have busted a gut if he had one, and it leaked into Yu. Growling, he muttered, "Dammit, Sir Fluffybuns, would you stop that?"

'Why should I?' Said spirit asked.

"Because it concerns you, you idiot."

Strangely, no one really seemed too concerned that Yu was talking to himself. What they were surprised by is the fact that he named the supposedly non-existent voice in his head 'Sir Fluffybuns.'

Letting out a small sigh, Yu said, "Guys, I'm serious. This is not some sort of joke, and you need to not take it as one."

"We've taken most of our lives as jokes," Chie informed him. "Why stop now?"

'I think I like her mentality,' Fluffykins commented.

'It's certainly unique, isn't it?' Yu replied. 'Just wait 'til she hurts Yosuke.'

Yu frowned involuntarily. 'And why would that be funny?'

Yu was honestly surprised by the question. 'Because he always-and I mean always-deserves it.'

'Really? I highly doubt that.'

'Yosuke is not a very bright child.'

Yu was brought out of his conversation by a light slap on the cheek.

"What?" He questioned.

"Dude, are you going to eat?" Yosuke asked.

"Uh… Yeah, yeah," Yu replied, pulling out the boxed lunch he managed to snag and stuff under his arm before he dashed to the roof. How he didn't lose it throughout the whole ordeal was beyond him.

'Aren't you going to thank me?' Fluffykins asked.

'For what?'

'For making sure you didn't lose your lunch!'

'Oh, so that's why… Then thank you, I suppose.'

The spirit hummed smugly to himself.

For the moment, everyone chose to ignore Yu's confession that he had a spirit talking to him. It was probably best to wait until they were absolutely sure they wouldn't be spied on, and they had the rest of their group with them, anyway. And so, they decided to move on.

"So, I hear the school camping trip is coming up," Yosuke commented as a conversation starter, a long piece of meat hanging limply from his mouth.

"At the very least, finish putting your meat in your mouth before you talk," Chie told him with an annoyed look. "And please don't remind me about that. It's nothing short of torture. This is something connected to school; you shouldn't get your hopes up."

"What's so bad about it?" Yu asked.

"All you do is pick up trash," Yukiko answered, to which the boys cringed.

"Yeah, King Moron supervises, or, more accurately, yells at you all the time to get your asses in gear," Chie added, furthering the depressed feeling the two males were suddenly feeling.

"N-no way," Yosuke breathed. "Y-you're kidding, right? Right?"

Yukiko shook her head. "Nope. It's so you feel more of a love for your hometown… or something along those lines."

"There is a river nearby, and last year a couple people ended up swimming, so that's good, I suppose," Chie said.

Yosuke immediately perked up. "Oh, swimming's allowed?"

Chie shrugged. "Probably. You have some free time after all the scheduled clean-up is over and done with, and you're free to do what you wish with it so long as you don't wander too far."

Yosuke looked like he had stars in his eyes. Yu could just tell that he was planning something. Apparently, so could Chie, as she kicked him in the shin.

'He deserved that?' Fluffykins asked.

Yu nodded. 'Yeah, it's pretty obvious that he was coming up with some scheme to get the girls in a swimsuit or something.'

'It is?'

Yu wanted to respond, but realized that he was hardly sure how he knew this stuff anymore. 'You'll pick it up if you just pay attention. Don't worry.'

'Oh, I worry,' Fluffykins told him.

The group fell into a peaceful silence, enjoying the sounds of the birds chirping. Sadly, this lovely moment was interrupted several minutes later by the door bursting open with a loud slam, causing Yosuke to jump and lose his box.

While Yosuke mourned the loss of his lunch, the intruder stomped up to Yu. Pointing to him, the newcomer, that being Morooka, said, "You're a lazy asshole, you know that?!"

Fluffykins started laughing so hard at that statement that it caused Yu to snort.

'Dammit, Sir Fluffybuns!' Yu snarled before returning his attention to his teacher. "T-thank you for the compliment," he muttered sarcastically.

"You're welcome," Morooka growled just as sarcastically. "Anyway, you haven't joined any clubs! What's wrong with you?!"

"I… have better things to do with my time?" Yu more or less asked.

"Right," Morooka drawled out. "I know you don't. And so, because you outta contribute to something while you're here, you're going to fill in for a sick health club member."

Snorting, this time of his own volition, Yu muttered, "Well, that's ironic."

Morooka nodded in agreement, informing him of the meeting place, before taking his leave. As he was walking away, Yu realized that because of this sudden joining of a club, he would be unable to gather his gang together in a swift and timely manner to discuss the issue of the spirit that now lived inside of him.

He let out a sigh and waited for Morooka to leave. Once he was sure his teacher wouldn't hear him, Yu looked to Yosuke. "Did he force you into a club too?"

Yosuke looked up from attempting to salvage some of his rice. "No. I suppose it's because you're one of those really good students, which makes it really surprising that you don't spend time in clubs."

"Yeah, I'm not doing that. If I do, people might think I care about them. I want only a small circle of friends that I know I can keep in contact with after I leave."

Smiling, Chie told him, "Well, you've got that now, don't you?"

Yu nodded. "Indeed."

* * *

After school finished, Yu more or less unwillingly dragged himself to the meeting place. He looked up at the sign located above the door and saw an old cobweb hanging there. That was a bad omen if he'd ever seen one.

Opening the door, he was unsurprised to find three club members present. Prior to noticing him, which took several minutes, they just wandered about in a clearly bored fashion, doing nothing in particular. When they finally did spot him, they seemed confused.

"Uh, morning," one greeted. "Did you get hurt?"

Yu shook his head. "No, I'm here because Morooka told me that you had a sick member, and because I'm apparently a lazy asshole, I have to fill in."

"Well, I hope you have a book, because this is by far the most boring club you're ever going to have the misfortune of being stuck in," another muttered.

"Yeah, sorry bud," the third said.

"We need to go see if anyone needs anything. Think you can hold down the fort?" The first asked.

"There's something to hold down?" Yu asked, looking around in confusion.

Laughing nervously, the second person said, "Yeah, surprisingly. Just use the first aid kit if anyone's hurt and stay away from the pills. We should be back in less than 10 minutes unless we're actually needed."

Yu nodded and watched them leave. He took a seat and immediately regretted it when settled dust went everywhere. Coughing, he bemoaned, "Does the janitor just skip this room or something?!" He then briefly paused in thought before asking, "Do we even have a janitor?"

'What's a janitor?' Fluffykins asked.

'A person whose job is to clean up places.'

'Then, yeah, you clearly don't have one of those.'

'I figured that part out.'

Standing and brushing the dust off his ass, Yu looked around. "They've got to have some sort of cleaning supplies…"

Eventually, he managed to locate a dirty rag. He washed it off and was disgusted by the dirt that flowed off it.

"Well, that says a lot about the motivation within this room," Yu commented to himself. He proceeded to lazily wipe down the table and chairs, thoroughly disturbed by the amount of dirt that stuck to the rag. "This is going to be a _long_ ten minutes."

Many a minute later, the health club members wandered in and then immediately took a couple steps back to look at the sign to ensure they were in the correct place.

In the ten minutes that it had taken for the members to return, Yu had swept, wiped, and dusted the whole area, all while arguing with Fluffykins about why he was being bothered to do so, as they would surely not keep up with what he started. He won that battle and then proceeded to rearrange the whole place, organizing the pills based on strength and overall effectiveness, went through all of the files and made sure they were where they should be, and finally, moved the first aid kit to a place that was actually accessible (it had been on top of the medicine cabinet, shoved so far back that when Yu started to wonder where it was, he was unable to find it because he thought he had already seen all that there was to find there).

"Uh… um… ah…" This was the ramblings of a bunch of stunned children. Thank you for listening.

"Yeah, I got bored," Yu said with a jaded yawn. "You were right, this is a bore. Anyway, the gist of what I do was I reordered your pills by strength, and made it so you can actually locate your first aid kit."

The three opened and closed their mouths uselessly for at least 20 seconds. Feeling uninterested again, Yu said, "Well, I'll just leave you to digest this new information." He walked past them and promptly bumped into some random child. "Uh, sorry," he apologized.

"Whatever," was the apathetic reply.

Upon hearing the newcomer's voice, the club members snapped out of their stupor. "Konishi-kun!" They all greeted. Meanwhile, Yu started to wonder where he'd heard the name 'Konishi.'

"Morning," he replied. "I'm a bit late, aren't I? Why are you guys not at the normal meeting place? Come to think of it, why I am not?"

Chuckling, one of them answered. "Surprising, isn't it? This is the normal meeting room. This guy that had to fill in for you just happened to get bored while we were doing our duties and cleaned it up."

"I also reorganized," Yu piped up, feeling rather proud.

"Yeah, he did that too."

The boy looked back to Yu with a confused look. "Why?"

"Why not?" Yu shot back.

"Ah… touché." The boy looked him over. "Now that I think about it… you're that transfer student, right?"

"Yes, I am."

"Right… listen here." The boy narrowed his eyes and told him in a low, threatening voice, "Stay away from my sister."

Yu took a step back, shocked. "…And your sister is who now?"

"Saki," the boy informed him simply.

Yu snapped his fingers. "That's where I'd heard your last name! Thank you, that was bugging me. And don't worry, neither of us seem to see each other as particularly interesting individuals."

"Good," the Konishi child said.

Yu took this as his cue to leave, so he turned around and walked away without looking back.

* * *

When Yu got home, Nanako greeted him with a quieter voice than usual.

"Nanako? Why are you so quiet?"

The aforementioned little girl pointed in the direction of the couch, so Yu focused his attention there. Lying there was Naoto, who was asleep. Or, at least, she appeared to be. She was lying on her side, her front facing the back of the couch.

After staring at her in complete silence for several moments, Yu asked, "OK, why is she here?"

"I think she wanted to talk to you but you didn't come home, so she just fell asleep."

Yu chuckled. "Whoops. Blame my teacher."

Approaching her, Yu briefly wondered if it was worth it to wake her. She looked far too peaceful, and he didn't want to disturb that. However, it occurred to him that technically she should be at work and had probably spent her break time early to come and talk to him, only for him to not show.

Suddenly feeling bad, he reached out his hand and shook her. She grumbled and tried to roll over, only to fall off the couch, landing on top of Yu's feet.

Finally awake, Naoto sat up, still grumbling.

"Morning," Yu greeted casually.

Naoto looked up to him. "Where were you? Nanako-chan said you should have been back within ten minutes."

"I wasn't expecting someone to want to see me, so I didn't inform you. My teacher signed me up for some nonsense with the health club, which, ironically, had a sick member and the most unsanitary room within the whole building. Anyway, what did you need?"

Yawning, Naoto muttered, "I wanted to check on you and see if you hadn't found anything out about that spirit that took control of you the night before. I didn't do it at the school because I figured it would attract attention."

"No, it actually wouldn't. I informed my gang today that I have a voice in my head and they just laughed. I ended up letting the subject drop because they weren't taking me seriously, so I never got to find out if they have spirits too. Sir Fluffybuns seems to think that it knew Yukiko's spirit, so that's led me to believe that she at least does in fact possess one."

"I'm sorry; it's talking to you and has informed you that it knew the creature inside Yukiko?"

"Oh, sorry, did I forget to mention that it talks to me on a regular basis now?"

'I'm a he,' Fluffykins informed him.

"Uh, he has just informed me that he prefers being referred to as a male rather than an 'it.'"

"Right… That's not worrying at all."

"Why would this worry you? I have ears and a tail; being able to chat with the creature I'm borrowing them from should not come as a shock!"

"I suppose that's fair," Naoto conceded. She heard her phone ring and, upon spying the caller's name, hastily answered. "Hello? Yes… I'm sorry, Dojima-san, I'm coming back now."

Chuckling, Yu said, "Have fun at work. Be sure to let him know to blame my teacher for the hold-up."

"Will do," Naoto replied as she was suddenly dashing out the door.

"Well, that was fun," Yu commented offhandedly as he stared at the space where she had been 20 seconds ago.

* * *

 **Oh, how happy I am with this chapter! It's at least thrice as good as the original, and even then that's probably a massive understatement. So yay, go me! Even though I failed to finish a single chapter in a solid month even though it isn't all that long of a chapter that doesn't have nearly as much wiggle room as the others!**


	17. The Scooter

**Good day, I'm sorry this took a while. I just wasn't in the mood to write, you see.**

 **Anyway, funtime storytime before I forget my _amazing_ experience today. It's funny, I swear, especially if you're into analyzing words and their meaning.**

 **Er, at the end, anyway, I don't want to annoy you people who don't care.**

* * *

Chapter 17

(8th) (Wednesday)

Yu was putting away the supplies that he had stored in his desk. However, all mundane things must eventually come to an end to give way for something far more exciting. In this case, it was that Yosuke happened.

"Dude! Dude! Dude! Dude! Dude! Dude!"

Yu cringed. "Stop. Saying. Dude."

"Uh, sorry, dude. Er… man."

"That's not much better." Yu let out a sigh. "What do you want?"

"When they're sitting in back of you, it's like a squeeze play!" Yosuke yelled, providing absolutely no context.

Yu felt his annoyance slipping away, with confusion taking its place. "Are you putting together a baseball team or something?" He asked.

Yosuke looked as confused as Yu felt. "What, no, what're you…? I have no idea what you're happen to be talking about!" He groaned. "Uh, sorry, I guess I forgot that you didn't know what I was talking about."

"No duh," Yu told him, getting a glare from his friend.

"Alright, so what I meant was that when a girl is riding with you on a motorcycle, they press up against your back!"

"Yeah, that'll happen," Yu commented. "Let me guess, you want a motorcycle then, huh?"

"But of course!" Yosuke said happily.

'The fuck's a motorcycle?' Fluffykins questioned

'Something us children don't have the money to buy,' Yu answered.

'That… didn't answer my question.'

'It's easier to show you than tell you.'

"Um… Yu?"

Yu snapped to attention. "Sorry, what?"

"You blanked out again. You've been doing that a lot. Are you alright?"

"I'll discuss that with everyone once we're out of school, alright?"

"Er… OK. Anyway, as I was saying, we should get our licenses!"

"Yosuke, I don't even have a driver's license because I'm afraid I'll kill someone. What argument could you possibly have that will convince me to get something small and fast and just as deadly if placed in the wrong hands?"

"Dude, your hands are not 'wrong' in any sense of the term. You'll be fine. And if you do, I'll be there by your side calling an ambulance after laughing my ass off."

Yu started to chuckle. "Fine, fine. Aren't you pushy?"

"Of course dude, I've wanted this for so long!"

"And you never bothered to do it before because…?"

"Because now I finally have enough money saved up to get me a scooter!"

"Hang on. It's illegal to have two people on a scooter."

The expression on Yosuke's face, that being overdramatic shock, indicated that he had not considered this. As such, he fell to his hands and knees upon coming to terms with the realization and whined, "Dammit."

Yu snorted. "Honestly, you should've seen this coming, Yosuke."

"I know; the universe hates me!"

"No, it's just that you can't be bothered to figure out any kinks in your plans before announcing them to the world with the promise that you're going to see it through to the end."

Yu stood, stretching his stiff limbs.

"Now, if you're done sulking… I need to gather the rest of the gang so that we can have a lovely chat. Mind retrieving Chie and Yukiko?"

"What about you?"

"I'm going to go see if I can't find Kanji. Meet us at Junes. I would say the roof, but it's raining and that'll just make everyone miserable."

Yosuke nodded and started to wander about in an attempt to find the girls. Yu, meanwhile, went downstairs, finding and intercepting Kanji as he tried to leave.

"Yo, Kanji-kun!" He called out.

Kanji stopped. "Oh, it's you. What's up?"

"The gang's meeting because I have something of interest to discuss with y'all. Come on, we're meeting at Junes."

"Oh, are we going… over there?"

Yu shrugged. "Maybe if the talk doesn't take too long and I don't have anything better to do with my life."

Kanji smiled. "Sweet, I've been looking forward to getting to whack something with that thing Chie-senpai gave me!"

"It's a scepter," Yu informed the younger boy.

* * *

(At Junes)

Yu watched with a blank expression as the three other members of the second year came rushing for the table.

"You're late," he told them as they sat down.

"Oh shush," Chie hissed. "It's not our fault Yukiko engaged in a lengthy conversation with some random dude that had to go the other way."

Yukiko frowned. "You were the one to start the conversation."

"Guys, focus," Yu said before they could get into an argument.

"Right, sorry, what now?" Chie asked sheepishly.

Yu took a deep breath. "Alright, so you remember yesterday with the talk of the voice in my head?"

"Oh no, not this again," Yosuke groaned.

"Wait, what?" Kanji asked. "This is new information for me."

"Yeah, sorry, you just weren't there," Yu said. "Anyway, because that conversation went really off rails in a swift and timely manner, I never got to actually discuss it. You see, Sir Fluffybuns, as I have so named him-" He stopped when Fluffykins started yelling.

'OK, that's it; I can't take being called that anymore, idiot! Nor 'Fluffykins' as the person outside the fourth wall keeps calling me. Try to be consistent!'

'Get away from the fourth wall,' Yu warned dangerously. 'And I call you that because A) you haven't complained, and B) you never tried to tell me your real name!'

Yosuke, worried, started to snap in front of Yu's eyes. In response, the group's leader held up a finger, silently requesting they wait.

'Fine, my name is Whitewind!'

Yu snorted. 'That sounds like something right out of those American 'Warriors' cat books.'

Yu shrugged involuntarily. 'It might be. Ask the person outside the wall.'

'Seriously, get away from there.'

Yu focused his attention back on his underlings. "Sorry. Apparently his name is Whitewind. Anyway, Whitewind is the spirit that I seem to be borrowing my animal features from. He says that he knew the one Yukiko seems to be taking from. I just want to know if you can talk to them like I can with mine."

"How'd you wake up yours?" Kanji asked.

"I don't know. I just jabbed myself in the stomach and told him he need to get off his lazy, freeloading ass."

"That doesn't sound like it'd be good for getting on the spirit's good side," Yosuke noted.

"It probably isn't. I know Whitewind wasn't exactly happy until I promised him I'd get him his body back."

"And how do you plan to do that?" Chie questioned.

"Admittedly, I am still working on that one," Yu said with a nervous chuckle. "Anyway, my point is that I just want you guys to try and wake up your supernatural creatures if at all possible." He fell silent for a moment, listening to his spirit, before adding, "And Whitewind would like to speak to them when you do. That would involve giving up our bodies for the moment, so that's no fun, but I doubt they'd run away or destroy something important if the rest of you haven't woken your spirits."

Everyone had thoughtful looks on their faces as they considered the idea that there might be an otherworldly creature just sitting there, probably laughing anytime that they got themselves into any stupid sort of predicament.

Standing, Yu asked, "So, we have some extra free time. Anyone want to go into the TV?"

"And deal with the 'kingly' bear with the existential crisis again?" Chie asked.

With a thoughtful look on his face, Yu replied, "Yeah, when you remind me he's there, I kinda lose the will…"

"But I wanted to hit things!" Kanji yelled.

"You'll get your chance soon enough if we aren't lucky," Yukiko assured him.

While Kanji sulked, Yu asked, "Is there anything else we need to discuss in today's meeting?" He was met with negative shakes of the head, so he said, "Alright, meeting over. Go back to your lives."

* * *

As Yu wandered his way back home, he decided it best to stop by the shrine.

"Yo, foxy!" He called out.

The fox appeared and barked.

"Well, what else am I going to call you?"

The fox barked.

"Ku… what?"

The fox barked.

"Kurt?"

The fox barked.

"Kung?"

The fox barked.

"Kunai?"

The fox barked, seemingly growing annoyed.

'He's saying 'Kuni', you idiot," Whitewind informed him.

"Kuni, huh?" Yu chuckled sheepishly. "Whoops, seems I need to get better at my fox-speak."

'Clearly.'

"Oh, shush. So, Kuni, I have an increased discount now, yeah?"

Kuni barked.

"What do ya mean you outta decrease it to a mere seven percent because I couldn't understand your name?! I was trying!"

Kuni narrowed his eyes before barking.

Yu sighed. "Thank you. I'm just gonna leave before I infuriate you again." Slowly, he backed away from the shrine before pausing. "Wait, can I have the next ema, please?"

Kuni barked, seemingly happy, and retrieved the specified item. Yu looked it over and nodded.

"Thank you," he said as he handed the item back.

Kuni barked.

Yu took this as a 'now get out of my house' message and left.

While he was trying to get back, he saw a beckoning hand appear from the Velvet Room door. Confused, Yu complied, wandering in.

"Do you need something?" He asked once inside.

Margaret shook her head. "No, why do you ask?" It appeared she had a barely contained smile on her lips.

"I don't trust you," Yu said, immediately wary.

"What's there to not trust?"

"Everything. You've hit me with a wine bottle. We didn't even do anything that day!"

"Marie almost touched my master," Margaret replied.

"Yeah, a key word in that sentence being _almost_ ," Yu shot back. "Meaning she did not! Why do you hate me?!"

"I do not hate you. As a matter of fact, I quite like you."

"Then why would you clock me with a wine bottle?"

"Because you can be a threat to my master."

"A threat?" Yu drew himself to his full height and glared down at Margaret. "I'll show you a threat!"

He took one step and was immediately tackled from behind.

Whipping his head around incredulously, Yu was shocked to find it was Marie.

"Marie?! You're playing for them now?"

"What do you mean?" Marie questioned, snatching something from the ground. "You were just about to read my writing, weren't you?"

"No!" Yu yelled. "I-" He paused. "I know what this is about now." He looked to Margaret with an accusing glare. "You knew Marie's protective of her writing and beckoned me in, just so that she would hurt me when she entered to find me present with her forgotten paper by my feet."

Margaret smiled, but did not reply. He suspected she wanted to say something akin to 'payback's a bitch,' but refrained from swearing. Luckily (or not so depending on whose side you're taking), Whitewind made up for it despite not even understanding if it was actually payback.

* * *

"I'm home!" Yu announced with a high-pitched singsong voice when he wandered in through the door.

"Welcome back!" Nanako greeted with her usual enthusiasm.

"Morning," Dojima said with his typical tired tone.

"Oh, you're home for once," Yu noted.

"Yeah, Adachi hasn't been ingesting much more than coffee and instant ramen for the past month at least, so I bought him some real food."

Snickering, Adachi commented, "Yeah, because cheap supermarket sushi is so much healthier. You want some, Yu-kun? Watch out, it was on sale, and seems a bit old."

"Ah, no, I think I'm good," Yu replied.

"Anything is better than instant ramen, Adachi," Dojima informed him.

"What about chocolate?" Yu questioned.

"Instant ramen and chocolate," Dojima corrected.

"There you go," Yu mockingly congratulated, patting his uncle on the back. Hearing a dinging sound, he checked his phone, finding it was from Yosuke, asking if he'd asked his uncle for a license yet. "Hey, uncle?"

"Yeah?"

"What would you say if I asked to get a motorcycle?"

"I'd say you're nuts."

"What about a scooter?"

"I'd say that's more reasonable."

"Then it's settled, I'm getting a scooter."

"Wait, what?"

Yu did not offer an explanation, instead turning on his heel with a smug smile on his face and leaving the house, going to work at his hospital job.

* * *

'Do you honestly think he'll let you get a scooter just because you did _that_?' Whitewind questioned as Yu wandered about, more concerned with finding that ghost from the other day than actually cleaning.

'Probably not,' Yu admitted with a chuckle. 'But it was definitely worth it for a laugh.'

'Well, you got me there. That was pretty good. So, what are you doing now?'

'Trying to find that ghost that made me wake you up. And trying to avoid the creepy nurse.'

'Wimp.'

'Why does everybody think that?!'

'Because you are one.'

'Shut up! I fight shadowy creatures on a nigh-regular basis!'

'Doesn't excuse your wimpy-ness.'

'I'm done talking to you.'

'How? I am literally a voice in your head right now, you cannot just walk away.'

Yu simply did not respond. He got a horrible feeling about what was coming next when a cruel smile spread on his face without his permission.

While Yu failed to find the young ghost that he was searching for, he did accomplish one thing on his trip, and that was that he figured out he hated having a talkative spirit in his head that knew he could annoy his host through consistent chattering.

* * *

(9th) (Thursday)

After school was out, Yu and Yosuke made their way to the bus stop.

"So, your uncle said yes?" Yosuke questioned.

"Why didn't you ask that earlier?" Yu asked. "Anyway, not exactly…" Yu relayed the conversation to Yosuke.

"Dude… you're still going to take the test, though, right?"

"I wouldn't be here otherwise."

"Even to support me?"

"Even if you begged."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

* * *

20 minutes later, Yu was holding a shiny new… paper slip.

"I kinda imagined something sturdier," he commented.

"Your real license will be sent to you by mail in a couple days, sir," one of the employees informed him.

"Ah, that makes sense."

* * *

Another 20 minutes later, Yu and Yosuke were getting off the bus.

"That was great, dude! I only messed up 5 questions!" Yosuke shouted, looking at his paper license with glee even though he'd been staring at it for the past 15 minutes.

"Wasn't 4 the max you could mess up?" Yu asked, confused.

Yosuke was silent. "I'm going to assume that you heard that wrong, or that I fucked up less than I thought I did."

"Both of those are equally unlikely."

"Hey!" Yosuke spotted something over Yu's shoulder. "Hey, isn't that your uncle?"

Yu turned around. "That it is."

Dojima was standing by the gas station, staring in the opposite direction of the boys.

Silently gesturing towards him with a smirk on his face, Yu started tiptoeing towards his uncle, Yosuke following a couple feet away, trying to contain his snickers.

Standing directly behind his uncle, Yu reached up ever so slowly and suddenly grabbed Dojima's shoulders, yelling "Ha!"

Dojima jumped and reacted instantly, flipping the teen over his shoulder, fully prepared to punch him in the face. He stopped when he realized that he'd nearly attacked his nephew.

"Shoulda seen that coming," Yu groaned.

"Yu! What are you doing?"

Chuckling, Yu sat up and said, "I wanted to scare you. I guess it worked too well."

"Yeah, don't surprise a trained detective. Let me tell you now, we will whoop your ass."

"I think I figured that out."

"So, what were you guys up to?"

"Oh, so you're just going to completely ignore the fact that you just attacked a relative?"

"Just answer the question."

"We were getting these." Yu held up his paper license.

"Oh, you were actually serious about getting that. I mean, I figured you would, but not this quickly."

"Yosuke just really wanted to get one, ya know?"

"Clearly. I guess I can't argue with you if you've already gone out and gotten the darn thing."

Yosuke smiled. "Yeah, you got the OK!"

"Of course, I got the OK, Yosuke. Like he said, I already got the license. Kinda hard to say no to that."

"I know, I know. But he could have said 'Are you crazy?! You'll kill yourself!' But you got the OK, so I'm going to go home and read the catalog."

"Have fun," Yu called out as his friend walked away. Turning his attention back to his uncle, he asked, "So, what are you doing out here?"

"Getting some gas."

Yu looked around the immediate area and noticed something important. "Uh, then where's your car?"

Chuckling, Dojima said, "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised you realized it so quickly. Yo, Adachi! Bring it around here when it's done!"

Adachi's voice came from behind a gas pump. "Yeah, give me a sec!"

A minute later, Adachi wheeled out a white scooter. Yu could tell it was old, but the fact that they were filling it up gave the indication that it still ran fine.

"You've already gotten a scooter for me? Despite the fact that you didn't even know if I was going to get a license?"

Dojima nodded. "Yeah. It's the one that I rode when I was your age. I personally checked everything, and it's still pretty good. If anything seems faulty, then I'll replace whatever's wrong."

"Why did you keep your old scooter? I mean, surely getting parts for this is a serious hassle."

With a smile, Dojima said, "I bought spare parts from garage sales. After people stopped using this model and the parts stopped being worth anything to them and the stores, they just sold them for incredibly cheap. The people that actually sold them, considering it was all garage sales, were few and far between, but this was a popular scooter back then, so I found enough bits that I could probably make half of a second scooter without taking a single piece from this one." He happily patted the seat of his beloved ride. "I won't bug you about traffic laws, but I will raise some serious hell if you total this thing, got it?"

"So you're telling me to get my own scooter that I _can_ total without worry of invoking your wrath in a swift and timely manner, correct?"

Dojima clapped Yu on the back. "You got it." He held out a helmet. "Wanna take it for a spin?"

Yu grinned. "Totally!" He snatched the helmet out of his uncle's hands, placing it on his head. "Perfect fit," he noted.

Dojima seemed surprised. "Huh, interesting. That was my helmet too."

"Seriously?" Yu questioned. "You didn't have lice, did you?"

"They would have died by now if I did."

"Then there would be dead bugs squashed against my hair."

Dojima groaned. "Just go."

"Righto!" Yu yelled, hopping on the bike and taking the keys from his uncle's hand. A full minute of being bugged about how the darn thing worked, he said, "Uncle, I got it. I hope. Don't worry."

Dojima nodded and stepped away from the vehicle, watching his nephew drive away. Darkly, he muttered, "I'll have that kid's head if I find out anything bad happens to my scooter." Adachi, rightfully frightened, stepped away from his boss.

* * *

After growing somewhat accustomed to how his new mode of transportation moved, Yu dropped it off at the house and started wandering the town to see if anything of interest was going on.

There was something of interest, surprisingly. It took the form of Ai Ebihara, that one girl Yu vaguely remembered managed to convince him to ditch class one day.

When she spotted him, she approached and said, "Yo, it's you."

"And it's you," Yu replied with a disinterested tone.

"You want to go down to the city again?"

"What's my motivation?"

"You get to be around _me_."

"That's got to be the lamest motivation ever. Is that seriously your best?"

"I'll buy a Kit-Kat bar."

"I'm sold!"

* * *

30 minutes later, Yu stepped off the train that took them to the city. Immediately, Ai saw something of interest at the nearby phone shop and rushed over there.

"Oh boy," Yu groaned. "Here we go. I'd better get my fucking Kit-Kat out of this."

'You aren't going to get a Kit-Kat out of this,' Whitewind assured him.

'Oh shush. I will get one, even if I have to steal her credit card.'

'Wow, that's low.'

'It isn't if I'm dragged around for several hours and get nothing for it.'

'Maybe you should have thought that such a thing could happen.'

'I did, but she promised me a Kit-Kat.'

'Do you even like Kit-Kats? I've never seen you eat one.'

'Only because getting one in Inaba is a right nuisance. I love them, you just can't find them.'

Whitewind rolled Yu's eyes.

'Okay, seriously, you need to learn how to stop that.'

'Well, excuse me, princess, I wasn't aware you were against self-expression.'

'I am when you're using me to do it!'

Fingers snapped in Yu's face, so he broke off communication with the spirit. Ai was standing in front of him with an annoyed look. "Are you coming?"

"Yeah, sorry," Yu apologized, following when Ai turned and stalked off.

After what must have surely been several hours, Ai finally decided that she needed to pay some attention to the poor sap that she dragged on her wild adventure. Her way of going about this was not exactly the best, though.

"Go buy me a latte."

Yu looked to her with a clearly bored look in his eyes. "And I should do that because…?"

"Because I'm me."

Yu sighed. "I, in all my years of moving to many a different school, have never met someone as egotistical as you. I refuse to buy you a latte."

Ai had a look on her face that said she was stunned. "You're kidding me, right?"

"I feel like I should be asking _you_ that question. Besides, I never got my fucking Kit-Kat!"

"If I buy you a Kit-Kat, will you buy me a latte?"

"That does not seem like a fair deal, but sure, why not?"

Ai smiled and started wandering about for a shop that would sell the desired item. Upon obtaining it, Yu eagerly munched on it, a look of happy innocence on his face that one would be hard-pressed to find elsewhere. The way he held the stick of unhealthy foodstuff also reminded those around him of a chipmunk. This garnered an incredibly amused look from Ai.

"What?" Yu asked when he saw her face.

"When was the last time you'd had one of those thing?"

"Many months," Yu answered, returning to enjoying his chocolate.

After a good long time, Yu finally returned home, as Ai released him upon seeing the happiness on his face and for some reason not having the heart to make him buy her a latte. She also bought him a second Kit-Kat, which immediately put her (on the bottom of) his favorite people list.

'So, where're we going tonight?' Whitewind questioned during dinner.

'Who said we're going somewhere?'

'I do!'

'Whiny brat. Anyway, if you insist… I suppose I need to do that tutoring job still. It's a good source of income, if anything, I guess.'

'Boring!'

'You're the one who wanted to go somewhere, so that's where we'll go, and you will like it! Besides, I need cash, fast.'

'Fine. And you aren't _that_ low on money.'

'Keep telling yourself that. Do remember that I have to pay for weapons and armor for my team, so…'

* * *

'Here we are!' Yu announced to his spirit friend.

'I do not care.'

'You're the one who wanted to go somewhere, stop complaining!'

Whitewind grumbled unhappily to himself, but shut his nonexistent trap regardless. That is, until he started commenting rather rudely to just about everything Yu said.

'You are a temperamental bastard, you know that?' Yu growled after the 20th comment on Shu's bad (by a high schooler's standards, anyway) Japanese.

'I am not temperamental. This isn't even my worst. You wouldn't like me at my worst.'

'I don't like you now!'

'I'll get you for that.'

'Yeah, just make sure it's in private, I don't want to look like more of a loon than I already do.'

'I'm afraid that's not possible.'

'Fuck off.'

'Same to you, buddy.'

* * *

 **Okay, now storytime.**

 **See, I was friends with this guy here on FF, but I will be blunt as all hell and say he is a narcissistic psychotic asshole.  
He was one day using me as a middleman because he got proof against someone who was against him on I believe it was his views of using Pat reon (which FF apparently hates, huh), and that person blocked him. When talking to her, she told me I should sever contact with him. I didn't think he was bad at the time, maybe a little messed up in the head, yes, but not _bad_ , and I just made a small mental note of it. Eventually he got to me talking about killing (and I mean seriously, with a sword and computer hacking) a troll, and I just said fuck it and blocked him.  
I'll admit, though, he's a pretty good writer, although his psychoticness kinda taints the stories just a little, and so I bothered to read his stories anyway, even though that's probably not a good thing to do. He was complaining about how he would hate to see a Shadow of the Colossus movie, and I, for whatever reason, decided to throw my two cents in through a review. Why? I don't know. He used another person to contact me (I'm not surprised by that, considering he used me at least four times) and so I unblocked him so he could stop using the poor dude if he felt the need to say anything else.  
He eventually contacted me and titled the PM 'So you came crawling back, huh?' and went off on this whole rant. Okay, maybe I should have kept my mouth shut or at least treaded a little more carefully considering his attitude. But I didn't, and so I un followed his stories as he demanded and told him in what I am now deeming one of my proudest moments as an IB Language and Literature student that no, I did not come 'crawling back', because crawling would indicate I had some sort of desperate need of him, which I lack. I prefer to think of it simply being walking in with ever so slight hesitation.**

 **You know what's really funny about this to me? The fact that when I left him, he was rather unconcerned, but told me,** 'I'll miss you' **with a smiley face. Do you know what he told me in the recent PM? '** Did you think I would not remember, nor hold a grudge?' **At what point did he develop a grudge? I left him on something at least vaguely akin to semi-friendly terms, even if I did block him for seriously talking about slicing some kid's torso from his legs. I wasn't expecting to rekindle a friendship, but I also wasn't expecting for him to try to piss on me quite that hard.**

 **Also funny, the fact that he'll never delete that review, I can almost guarantee it. He deleted all of one of his stories to make way for a rewrite. Okay, but he posted the first part onto the old story and then deleted the original chapters. Why? Because he loves having reviews, and I guess seeing that little number be high boosts his ego or something.\**

 **Anyway, sorry for rambling. Honestly? I just want to remember this so I have something to laugh at later in life.**


	18. Frito The Tiger Spirit

**Holy shit, I'm early. I blame what as chapter 20, that shit was short as all hell. Now it's a good 3000 words, and I'm pleased with what I managed, considering.**

 **Quick note to anyone who read the first version…: Chidori (the spirit in Kanji) will now be named Frito. The reason for this is I was seriously struggling with to come up with a proper name for the tiger spirit, and now I feel my cat Frito (AKA Hobart, which is what I will call him to differenciate him from Frito) has provided a decent name. Most of the spirits names are actually my own animal's names, you know. Hobart's nice and fluffy, too, so I imagine that Frito would be too. It would be good for Kanji, I'm sure.**

* * *

Chapter 18

(10th) (Friday)

"Wait, your uncle just gave you a scooter after I left?!" Yosuke almost yelled in disbelief as they walked to school.

"It was his," Yu explained. "So, if I make a single dent in it, I will die a painful death, but I guess it will be worth it until then."

"Dude, you gotta let me go see it later!"

"Yes, yes, fine, just don't let me forget, alright? And what did I say about calling me 'dude'?"

"Uh, sorry. I need a new title for you, ya know? I've been thinking about it. What do you think about 'leader'?"

"That is way too obvious to my actual position. People will question it, because I'm not actually a leader of anything they know of," Yu said immediately.

"Uh, alright. How about…" Yosuke thought for a second before yelling, "Goodgulf!"

"That's not a title, it's a nickname! And no, I don't want to be called that!"

"'Sir Yu Narukami-kun'?"

"That's even longer than 'leader' or just my name!"

"I could always just call you 'Izanagi.'"

"I don't want to be known as my Persona. And that would just be a nickname as well!"

Yosuke let out a melodramatic sigh. "Wow, tough crowd. How about…. Conductor!"

Yu sighed and then went silent for many a minute following this. Finally, as they were entering the school, he replied, "Hell no. Where did you even get that?"

Yosuke frowned. "Do you want me to call you 'dude'?"

"No, I want you to keep trying until you've gotten all the stupid ideas out of your head."

"Fine. I'm gonna warn you now, that's going to take a while."

"Fine by me."

* * *

(11th) (Saturday)

Yu wandered up to Kanji and shoved his index finger in the younger boy's face and announced, "I have a bone to pick with you!"

Many people in the surrounding area looked at Yu like he was crazy. Which, as it has already been established many times now, he was.

"Um… alright," Kanji said. "I haven't done anything wrong last I checked, but sure. Are we going to go all fisticuffs or something, or do you just plan to chew me out for something I don't even remember doing?"

"Sure," Yu replied, not providing an answer in the slightest.

"Um, what does that mean?"

"Not much, really. I just felt I outta bug you."

"Thanks?"

"You got some time to talk? I'm bored, and the voice in my head is turning into a real nuisance."

'Hey!' Whitewind yelled, indignant.

Kanji nodded and the two started walking. Once they were out of the school, Kanji said, "By the way, speaking of 'them,' I tried to talk to mine the other day before dinner. I failed to get a reaction, but when I went to open the door, I almost ripped it off its hinges. Is that normal?"

Yu shrugged helplessly. 'What do you say, Sir Fluffybuns?'

'What the hell did I say about you calling me that?' Whitewind snarled.

Yu snickered, much to Kanji's confusion. 'I'm aware. Anyway, you were listening, right?'

'Correct, I was. And it sounds like he harbors either Hashberry or Frito.'

'…Excuse you?'

'Sorry,' Whitewind muttered without sounding sympathetic in the slightest. 'If my guess is correct, he has in him one of my friends. His attempts to communicate caused them to stir, but not completely awaken, so it just caused him to have a spike in power.'

Yu grunted as he mulled over this new information. After coming to accept this, he turned to Kanji and relayed the news.

"Is there any way to figure out which spirit it is?" He asked.

"What sort of ears do you have? Fuck off!" This last sentence, although seemingly random, came as a direct result of Whitewind taking control of Yu's mouth and vocal cords to question the younger student directly, and Yu was not happy about it.

Kanji, although understandable confused, replied, "A tiger's."

"That's definitely Frito, then. Dammit, Sir Fluffybuns! Would you stop calling me that?"

Kanji, his eyes wide in confusion, took several steps back, clearly debating on whether or not he should bolt.

"Kanji, I'm sorry, man. Don't run," Yu said. "Honestly, I'm as fond of a spirit taking over my mouth as you! Please don't leave me!"

"Is that what's waiting for me if I wake 'Frito'?"

"A lot of spirits said he was a lot better tempered than me. Fluffybuns! You don't want to be constantly playing messenger boy, right? So shut up and let me speak!"

By this point, Kanji actually seemed the slightest bit used to the strange behavior, though he still had a confused expression on his face, but overall didn't seem too concerned by the seemingly one-sided argument.

Yu finally decided to back off and allow Whitewind to speak unhindered.

"Finally," he sighed. "Alright, so. Kanji, you likely harbor Frito, as it has been established. He's milder than me, at least according to most; you just can't get on his bad side. Make sure that you aren't around anything breakable next time you attempt contact, alright?"

"Yeah, I kinda figured that part out. Hey listen man… er, men. I gotta go, I promised to help someone with something."

"Don't die!" Yu demanded after wrestling control back from Whitewind.

'So, what now?' The spirit asked.

'Uh, I still gotta work on that ema…'

Whitewind groaned.

* * *

(12th) (Sunday)

"Come, Yosuke!" Yu said happily, grabbing said teen's wrist and dragging him all the way to the hill overlooking the town before he broke free.

"Dude, the fuck was that shit?!" Yosuke questioned.

"Everything!" Yu announced.

'What is wrong with you?' Whitewind asked with an irritated groan.

'Everything,' Yu replied with a small, sheepish shrug.

"So… why did you bring me here?" Yosuke asked.

"Because I'm bored and decided that you were going to help me with that," Yu answered, wandering his way over to the nearby bench and taking a seat. Yosuke somewhat reluctantly followed suit. "Did those girls ever get off your back about work and the weekends and all that?"

"It took a good long time, but surprisingly, yeah. Saki-senpai, at the promises of extra bonuses I was unaware of, started really laying into them. I wasn't even aware that it was going on until she dragged them over to me one day after what was apparently several days of her verbally assaulting them and demanded that they apologize for the shit they gave me." Yosuke smiled. "I really wish I had her level of influence, ya know?"

Yu smiled back. "That would be cool, wouldn't it?"

Yosuke laughed. "Yeah, then maybe Chie wouldn't kick me as often."

"Dude, you deserve that. Every time. Trust me."

Suddenly, Yosuke found himself infuriated. "Why do all of you pick on me?!"

Yu was slightly taken aback by the seemingly random rage. Carefully, he stated. "Because we love you." He couldn't help it and added, "And you deserve it every time."

Yosuke's eye twitched, the only indication of his fury, before he slugged Yu in the jaw. Once he was done reeling backwards, he muttered, "And I deserved that for at least one stupid thing I've done."

"Is there any way you can make it so you don't take away my satisfaction when I hit you?"

Yu rubbed his jaw. "Hey, I'm saying I deserve it. Shouldn't that make you feel better than if I were a perfect guy who never had a reason to get his clock cleaned?"

"I suppose."

"There you go. Would punching me again make you feel any better?"

Yosuke sighed. "No, that'd just make me feel bad."

"Why? I'm totally worthy of getting smacked around."

"But you wouldn't be fighting back!"

"Then, if you want, I will fight back."

Yosuke seemed surprised by this. "Er… O-okay."

Suddenly, Yu attacked. Yosuke barely managed to jump away in time to avoid it.

"Dude!"

"What? You never said that we had to agree to go on 'go'."

"Yeah, because we never agreed on anything besides you'd fight back!"

"Exactly!" Yu said with a smile before attacking again.

"Dude!"

"What did I tell you about calling me 'dude'?"

'And yet you can't be bothered to call me my name,' Whitewind grumbled.

'Oh, shush,' Yu replied.

Yosuke sighed. "Yes, I know, but it's a habit. Let's go already!" He raised his fists, and immediately had to use them to block Yu's assault.

Throughout the battle, Yu played aggressively, but rarely did his punches connect, as Yosuke dodged with almost shocking ease, though the look on his face indicated that he was continually surprised by the fact that he wasn't getting the shit kicked out of him. Every once in a while, Yosuke would attempt an attack, and almost always they would hit dead center, throwing Yu off balance for a couple seconds before he recovered. Luckily, Yosuke's strikes, although fast and accurate, were not particularly strong, which allowed Yu to keep going for far longer than he anticipated.

After a solid 20 minutes passed, Yu missed another punch and fell to the ground, gasping for breath.

"How are you so fast?" He groaned into the dirt.

"Beats me," Yosuke replied, dropping on his ass beside his friend. "It's a good thing, though. You hit hard."

"But of course!" Yu replied. "Do you expect any less of me? By the way… If you're that fast, how can you not manage to avoid Chie's kicks?"

"I never expect them!"

"How?! Why are you not constantly on guard around her?"

"Because she's my friend, and I don't feel like I should be on guard around a friend!"

"I'm honestly surprised you aren't conditioned to be constantly weary of her. As a matter of fact, I'm surprised you don't flinch every time she so much as glances in your direction."

"Same, honestly. I would prefer to not be more afraid of her than I already am, however." Yosuke let out a contented sigh. "Well, I'm happy now."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah. I have a pack, dude! I think this is the first time I've truly belonged somewhere!"

A phone dinged, and both boys pulled their devices out.

"Not mine," Yu announced.

"Yeah, that's me," Yosuke said. "I have work today, and you pulled me away before I could go."

"And you didn't just say anything because why now?"

"Because you startled me, and then made me forget. How dare you! What kinda Alpha are you, not looking after your pack?!"

"Wait, Alpha?"

Yosuke nodded. "Yeah, you're a wolf, right? That makes our group a pack, and you the Alpha. I just thought it up a couple minutes ago. What do you think?"

"The spirit inside me is a wolf, not me."

Yosuke shrugged in an uncaring manner. "Close enough."

"Not really, but alright, I suppose. I hope you realize this makes you Beta, right?"

"Really?"

"Well, I certainly wouldn't trust Kanji with that job. He's far too inexperienced."

"I guess I gotta agree with you there. But what about Chie?"

Yu shook his head. "You were the second one of us to gain a Persona, and despite the fact that you are consistently the butt monkey of the pack, you would be much more levelheaded in the event of an emergency, and I am not present. Chie, on the other hand, would probably run around screaming like the world was going to end."

Yosuke raised an eyebrow as he thought this over, eventually saying, "I think you may have a point there."

"Now, don't you have work to do, Beta?"

"Oh, shit! You're right!" Yosuke jumped to his feet. "Uh, bye Alpha!" He turned and dashed off, leaping over the fence with an almost surprising amount of grace. He quickly realized the fence was there for a reason and found himself rolling like Sonic the Hedgehog down the hill. At the bottom, he managed to plant his feet firmly on the ground and started running without losing momentum.

Yu watched all this from the top of the hill. 'I'm not sure whether I should consider that a fail or not,' he thought to himself.

'You probably shouldn't. That was shockingly skillful,' Whitewind commented.

'Yeah, but he completely forgot there was a hill there.'

'Fair. He was still smooth as fuck, though.'

'That is also fair.'

'So, you're Alpha now, huh?'

'It appears so.'

'Despite the fact that you're a bit of an annoying prick, I feel it fits quite well. I'll have you know I'm the Alpha of my group as well.'

'That's probably why you were stuck with me.'

'Most likely.'

* * *

 **And there we go!**

 **The next chapter is... only a little over 1600 words long. FMH, what was I thinking? I'll try to lengthen it, but gods, that's just sad, past me, what were you thinking?**


	19. uh, Zipped?

**I am so sorry... Not only has it been exactly two months now, I told Xanothos ten days ago that I would get my butt over to the computer and upload the next chapter. *sigh***

 **On the brighter side... I more than quintupled the 13** **th** **! Fuck yeah!**

* * *

Chapter 19

(13th) (Monday)

Ah, summer. The time of the year that causes the sun to be out almost all of the time, and for teens to start smelling incredibly gross because they're almost constantly sweating.

Yes, it's that time in Inaba, and so everyone bar the teachers in their semi-formal suits were to start wearing summer clothes. It wasn't necessarily an unspoken rule that 'it's summer; you might as well wear short sleeves!' It was actually an enforced rule that got you sent to the office if you wore your school jacket (or any jacket, for that matter) if it wasn't raining, and even then you had to take it off inside.

Personally, Yu believed that it was a stupid rule, as you should have some control over your uniform if it wasn't _blisteringly_ hot, but at least it's not like they ding you for wearing a jacket around your waist like what Chie does.

Regardless of the fact that wearing short sleeves was enforced by the school for whatever inexplicable reason, Yu accepted it enough to just go along with it.

On this fine and dandy day, Yu decided that he wanted to spend some time with Yukiko.

"Come, Yukiko!" He yelled, dragging her by the wrist outside.

"Are you going to do this with everyone?" She questioned.

"With any particular luck, yeah, actually."

Yukiko did not find this particularly surprising, and so just rolled with it and moved on. "So, where're we going?"

Yu slowed his stride. "Honestly? No clue."

Yukiko snorted. "Want to help me with my cooking?"

"Have you gotten any better?"

"I don't believe it has the likely chance of causing nigh-instantaneous organ failure anymore; does that count?"

"I should hope it does. To Junes?"

"To Junes!"

* * *

(Insert cheesy 90s Batman style transition here!)

"You don't need to cook, Yuki-chan!" One of the cooks at the Amagi Inn insisted.

"Well, I have to learn sometime, right?" Yukiko insisted back. She jabbed her thumb in Yu's direction. "Besides, he's here, and he's a great cook, so he's going to help me figure it out without taking away anything sharper than a spoon!"

"Even a spoon could be potentially lethal," Yu commented offhandedly.

Both Yukiko and the cook turned their gaze to the silver-haired boy who was staring into space as he awaited the argument to be over with.

"Anyway," Yukiko said slowly, returning to the original topic, "I promise that I won't harm anyone or anything!"

The cook sighed. "Fine." He shoved his index finger in Yu's face, causing him to jump in surprise. "You'd better not let her do anything stupid."

"That depends on what you think could be considered 'stupid'."

The cook let out another sigh and started listing off a number of 'stupid' things that Yukiko could do. It was almost surprising that he didn't say that her simply breathing could lead to a fatality.

"I think I got it," Yu said, no doubt only about halfway through listening to the list.

As the cook nodded and left, Yukiko turned to Yu with an apologetic look on her face. "I'm sorry, Yu-kun."

Yu gently placed his hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry; I've dealt with a lot worse than that. So, you're making curry, yeah?"

Yukiko nodded and laid out the ingredients they just bought. Yu noticed that a number of objects that he didn't remember seeing in their basket before were present. While Yukiko was getting out some pots, he picked up a box and looked at it. 'For some reason, I don't believe you should have chocolate powder in curry…' he thought.

'Why?' Whitewind questioned.

'It's… I'm…' Yu stumbled over his own thoughts trying to figure out how to explain to the outsider. 'It's not something that should be in there. Let's just leave it at that.'

As secretly as possible, he backed up some and shoved the powder in a corner cabinet.

'I hope she wasn't going to consider that a key ingredient…'

'Shouldn't you just let her have at it and correct her as she goes?'

'It's best to eliminate as much as possible as soon as possible.'

'Ah, fair enough, I suppose. I've had my fair share of idiots who can't do such and such task, but try it anyway.'

'Then why are you questioning me?'

'Because your methods are quite strange.'

"Yu?"

Yu jumped. "Oh, sorry, Whitewind was talking to me. What now?"

"I was mentioning how I'd saved up some money," Yukiko informed him, looking somewhat hurt that he ignored her in favor of a spirit that he was bound to.

"Oh really. How much?"

Yukiko brightened and said, "21,000 yen!"

Yu smiled. "That's a great start. What're you doing?"

"You mentioned translation being in abundance for whatever reason, so I checked it out and started the day that I gave you the botched cooking attempt. I've been doing it all secretly at night when I'm sure everyone's asleep."

"Oh, so you started on the 31st, right?" Yukiko nodded. "You're doing pretty well, I must say! How soon do you plan on getting out?"

"After I no longer have ears and a tail," she answered.

Yu nodded. "Reasonable. You should have enough to last you for a month or two if you're stingy about it. By the time you run out of that, you should have a proper job."

Yukiko smiled. "Yeah, I'm planning on getting a job license soon, so that shouldn't be too much of an issue."

Yu returned the smile. "You know, until then, I think the hospital is still hiring cleaners. It's not a messy job or anything, either, since there's rarely anyone present, let alone anyone to bleed all over the place. Plus, I could really use the company when I'm there. There's this nurse, who I swear is in her 30s at least, that keeps trying to hit on me."

Yukiko looked mildly concerned, but not at all surprised. "Wow, you even attract the cougars," she muttered.

"That's the thing!" Yu whined. "I'm pretty damn sure she isn't even into younger men. I think I'm just too handsome!"

"You're probably right about that. I'll definitely think about that."

Yu sighed and whispered 'Thank you,' before turning his attention back to what Yukiko was about to make.

* * *

Many hours of somewhat failed cooking later, Yu was making an errand run with Yukiko because they accidently used up the last of the sugar… and the flour… and the salt… as well as the pepper. Oh, yes, and don't forget about the pork chops.

"Whatever possessed you to think that we could add meat fat to the curry when you'd already thrown in a fish head, of which I told you should not be present?" Yu asked, still exasperated over the incident.

"Hey, they were going to go unused otherwise!" Yukiko countered.

"While I do appreciate your attempt at being eco-conscious, you don't do that with a curry. Or any recipe, for that matter."

"Just because it's not a recipe, doesn't mean it can't be good."

"Yukiko, dear, I tried that at your insistence… and ended up emptying the contents of my stomach for 3 minutes straight. It did not taste good."

Yukiko turned her gaze to the ground. "I'm sorry, Yu-kun."

Yu sighed. "You've already apologized 27 times now. Trust me, I counted, though I may have missed one since I was listening over the sound of my own puking. I'm telling you, it was fine after I got some water to wash out the awful taste of puke in my mouth. You don't need to keep saying you're sorry."

"Yukiko-san, manager-to-be!" Yelled a voice from behind, startling the teenagers.

"Oh boy, here we go," Yukiko bemoaned.

Before Yu had the time to ask what was going on, Yukiko stopped in her tracks, turning around with an annoyed glare. "Would it kill you to leave me and my family alone?!"

"My family and I," Yu corrected in the same offhand tone as when he was mentioning spoons could be deadly.

"Most likely, actually, it would," a man said as he and his posse approached. "Poor Aoto here needs this to be a success, or he might starve because he hasn't been getting a good paycheck and he has a family of five."

"Bull-fucking-shit," Yukiko accused.

"Wow, someone apparently didn't get soap to the mouth as a kid," one of the men following the leader muttered.

"How my parents raised me is none of your business!" Yukiko growled. "Why are you still here?"

"Because the trains aren't running right now," the boss replied.

The third man, who continually glanced down at his watch, tapped his leader on the shoulder. "Akita-san, they should be arriving soon, actually."

The boss nodded. "Ah, yes, thank you. That's our cue. Seriously, Yukiko-san, think about it." The three turned and left.

With a frown, Yukiko turned around and started walking again. Yu trailed after her.

"And those guys are…?" Yu questioned.

"Oh, sorry. They're trying to air a show about the inn."

"But… that's good, right?"

Yukiko shook her head. "No, it's a show about old historical places… and how they have no reason to be standing anymore."

"Oh, that makes more sense. Yeah, stay away from them."

"Yeah, if that airs, then no one will think the inn is structurally sound or otherwise safe and want it torn down. That could destroy not only my family, but the town too. The inn and the Mega Beef Bowl are all that we really have going for us."

"Well, you can't get the MBB anywhere else. Doesn't that attract people?"

"Yu-kun, it's a bowl. A bowl virtually no one has finished, sure, but it's a bowl."

"Okay, you got a fair point there. So, what're we getting first…?"

* * *

(14th) (Tuesday)

"Dude, the fucking school campout's coming up!" One boy whined.

"Unless you can successfully convince the school you got sick when it comes around, you're just going to have to suck it up with the rest of us," a second replied with an almost uninterested tone.

"I don't wanna, though. Come over tomorrow and we can brainstorm ways to get out of it, alright?"

"Yeah, sure."

'Is that campout really _that_ bad?' Whitewind questioned as he listened to the conversation.

'Don't ask me,' Yu replied. 'I wish I knew, though, so that I could figure out if it's worth avoiding.'

'They'd probably say that you've taken too many days off alright.'

'How do you know about that?'

'I like to listen to the conversations of the people you pass. I've recently heard you've missed at least five days.'

'It's not that many…'

'Right… Also, I've heard that your P.E. teacher is a massive perv.'

Yu couldn't help but sigh in response to this. 'You know, for some reason, I highly doubt that. It doesn't seem to fit his character…'

'Looks and the personality displayed to you can be deceiving,' Whitewind informed him as though he were a wise sage.

'Yeah, you'd know that, wouldn't you?'

'And that means what now?'

'Nothing, besides the fact that you don't have material things like what my world has, so you actually have the time to figure shit like that out.'

'Was… was that compliment?'

'Only if you want to preserve it as one.'

* * *

'So, what should I do today…?' Yu thought as he noticed the clock was slowly getting closer to the time in which school was let out.

'You still need to get that ema done,' Whitewind droned, feeling even more bored than Yu was.

'Okay, yeah, but that'll take… what, five minutes? At most?'

'Aren't you still a part of that health club? You could always hang out with them. That is, unless you want to try and pull Chie away with an enthusiastic "Come, Chie!' that will likely get you socked in the mouth. Or somewhere more unsavory."

'Yeah, I think I'm not quite willing to risk that. Health club it is!'

Whitewind sighed. 'When did I turn into your schedule advisor?'

'That was definitely a self-appointed task, I hope you realize.'

Whitewind groaned.

* * *

After dealing with the ema child, and finally getting her to go pay the shrine, Yu made his way to the health club room. Despite having only been there a couple days ago, a thin layer of dust was already settling over the area.

He was so caught up in his exasperation that he failed to notice for a good long time that only a single person was present. Sighing, he walked in. "Do I have to be your club's janitor or something?"

"Have at it," the only person other than Yu in the room muttered, not looking up from the book he was reading.

"Oh, it's you," Yu said when he identified the speaker as Naoki Konishi.

Heaving a loud sigh, the boy put down the book. "Why are you here? You were only present last time because I wasn't able to be."

"Because I have nothing better to do with my time, so I figured that I might as well come over and see just how bad you've made the place already. And I'm pretty sure I'm still signed up for the club."

The intercom turned on and called all members of the health club together.

"Wow, that's a first," Naoki said with a mildly surprised look on his face.

Several minutes passed, and two members gathered, but the final one was missing. No one knew why they were called together.

"Man, where's Kayo?" The boy Yu did not know the name of growled.

Sighing, the only present female muttered, "Who knows? She probably on the roof or something." She turned to Naoki. "Mind seeing if you can find her?"

Naoki nodded and walked off.

"Wow, he did that without complaint."

"Does he complain a lot normally?" Yu questioned.

The boy nodded. "Yeah, he's only here because his sister wanted him to do something with his life. We once gave him a hard time about not making an effort to make an effort, and he got Saki-senpai to kick our asses for him! So we can't complain if he complains about not wanting to do something, and so he gets really easy jobs, if he gets any at all."

"Yeah, I've heard that Saki-senpai can be a bit frightening at times," Yu commented, remembering his chat with Yosuke a couple weeks prior.

"We can't do anything about it. If we so much as say her hair looks a little flat, I fear she'll kick the crap outta us!" The female whined.

"I'm pretty sure she could get suspended if she did that," Yu replied. "She didn't seem that scary when I met her."

There was an annoyed huff and everyone looked to the entrance, finding Naoki standing there with a scowl on his face, Kayo looking very uncomfortable behind him. "Get to work," he growled.

"Yes sir!" Everyone but Yu yelled, running to perform their duties.

"Does anyone have the slightest clue why we were called together?" Yu questioned as they got closer to being finished for the day.

"Because otherwise we wouldn't have gathered to begin with," Kayo explained. "This is the first time they've done it, but I suppose they're just getting fed up with the fact that we can't be bothered to come together of our own accord half the time."

"Oh, so I just so happened to choose a day where you all actually showed up? Lucky me," Yu joked.

"Indeed," she replied with a similar tone of voice. "You can go now, Yu-kun. We can finish up what's left."

Yu nodded. "If you say so."

"I insist, actually. You don't have a clue about what you're doing."

Yu grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, that's true."

As he was leaving, Yu spotted Naoki walking along at a slow, clearly bored pace. Yu opted to ignore him unless he spoke first, as he didn't want to find out what the kid was capable of.

"You," Naoki muttered as Yu tried to walk past.

Stopping, Yu looked back to him. "Yes?"

"I heard you ask why we were called together."

"True…" Yu started walking again, with Naoki following.

"It was my sister. She found out that club doesn't gather often, so until she's sure we can get our shit together, she'll make the office call for us. Found that out while I was going to get Kayo."

"Fun."

"Yeah, that's the word for it. I hope you realize that this means that you're a part of the club now and will have to be coming."

The two sat down and changed their shoes out.

"Technically, I can just leave the school before the announcement can remind us."

"Ah, touché. But then you'll have to face my sister's wrath."

Yu grinned smugly. "I have yet to see those horrors. Therefore, I will not worry about it."

Naoki snickered. "Good luck with that. You're gonna need it."

"Thanks, I suppose. Anyway, I need to get going. As surprising as it might be, I actually have a life to live, and I assume you do to, so I'll let you go do that."

Naoki nodded and stood, giving a small, uncaring wave as he left the building. Yu took the time to ensure that he had all of his stuff before following suit.

* * *

"Good morning!" Yu shouted as he burst into the room, making Shu almost jump out of his skin.

"Don't do that!" The boy shouted in response, grabbing his heart like it was about to give out.

"But that takes all the fun out of it," Yu replied with a smile.

"But… what's 'it'?"

"Messing with you, of course."

Shu sighed. "You're a real piece of work, you know that?"

"Yeah, I get that a lot. Thanks for the reminder, though."

"Also, you do realize it's the middle of the night, right?"

"Actually, it's only 8. The middle would be 12. You know, it's called _mid_ night for a reason. What's your point?"

"My point is that you yelled 'Good morning.' It's not morning."

"It has to be morning somewhere. Tomorrow would be a major nuisance otherwise, am I not correct?"

"No, you're right." Shu was silent for a moment before saying, "You know, you're really lucky that this town is so small and doesn't have many potential tutors, otherwise I would have had you fired for that stunt."

"I'm truly a lucky duck, aren't I?"

"Yes… Can we get onto my lessons now?"

* * *

'Wow, not a single comment from the peanut gallery all evening? That's strange,' Yu commented with a concealed snicker as he drew his lesson with Shu to a close.

'Shut up, I was sleeping,' Whitewind growled, sounding as though Yu had begun pestering him to wake up in the middle of the night for the sole reason of saying hi.

Yu raised an eyebrow, realized that his student might notice, and promptly lowered it. 'But… you're nothing but a soul squatting in my body like a homeless person. How can you sleep?'

'It's… like sleeping normally,' Whitewind shrugged, forcing Yu into doing the action. Luckily, Shu had his back turned, and thus failed to see the strange movement. 'I can't really describe it, but you understand, right? Sleeping isn't something you really think about.'

'True. That does explain why I was blinking and kept almost forgetting to open my eyes again.' There was a brief pause before Yu asked a seemingly random question. 'How is your mind here?'

'Excuse you?" Whitewind questioned, forcing his confused expression onto Yu.

Yu inwardly growled and tried to wipe the look off his face. 'Well, your soul is different from your mind, right?'

'I imagine that's correct…' Whitewind answered, unsure of where exactly the human was going with his thought process.

'Then why in hell did your mind follow your soul here? If your mind is not the same and not necessary attached in any real way, then it makes no sense for you to be able to communicate with me and possess a sense of self. It should, theoretically, just be your powers, and even that could be debatable, seeing as your abilities are a physical part of you, right?'

Whitewind was silent for a moment as Yu went through the motions of leaving Shu for the day and getting his pay.

Finally, he stated, 'I have no clue. Maybe my body's been condensed into just my soul.'

'Like a zipped folder on a computer?' Yu questioned.

'I have no idea what that is,' Whitewind informed him. If he could, he likely would have glared at the human in annoyance.

Yu chuckled sheepishly as he remembered the spirit still had lackluster knowledge of his world. 'Oh, right. It's where you take any number of items on a computer and compress it into one compact section that takes less space to have around, and can be transferred easily to another computer. However, I'm pretty sure you can't use anything inside it until you unzip it.'

'So you're saying I'm a computer file?'

'I suppose, if you think it makes a good analogy. And it appears I accidently unzipped you when I attempted contact.'

'Does that mean the others Spirits could be 'unzipped'?'

Yu shrugged. 'Potentially. But I do fear my friends won't have the capabilities to do so. They seem to be able to drag out one aspect of your allies, though. Their powers are fully accessible as far as I can tell. I can only really draw two conclusions from that, one being that simply the physical part of them was transferred and not their soul or mind, or that your powers and animal features were purposefully transported separately by whatever higher being caused this mess so that we would all have access to it even before we could contact you Spirits. I don't know, this is confusing.'

'Wait, you seriously believe a higher being caused this?'

'Yeah. No one but a god could possibly rip the soul, mind, and part of the body out of a Spirit creature from another universe or dimension entirely, and place it into a boy in a small town, and cause him to have the ability to enter another world via a television.'

'When you put it that way, it sounds rational.'

'Nothing I say is rational.'

'Right, almost forgot that.'

* * *

 **So, yeah, sorry about the pathetic lack of schedule in my update schedule. It's not getting on track anytime soon, either, let me assure you of that. Uh, see you in two months or something.**


	20. Time For Scooters!

**Ended up splitting Chapter 19 into two pieces in an effort to not annoy people with severe length, as I'm always so afraid of doing. I shouldn't be, though, because I have made a story that until now was a self-inflicted challenge to write around 8,000 words a chapter. Never again.**

 **Also, hello, everyone, three month later, and I am fucking back. _Finally._ I don't know, I just wanted to write for this, and I'm glad I did, chapter 25 suddenly has a very interesting plot indeed.**

* * *

(15th) (Wednesday)

Yu calmly walked down the road to the school, the white pup he had taken to feeding everyday (expect Sunday) following at his heels.

Suddenly, Yosuke was a variable in the ever present walks, yelling, "Yo Alpha! Remember what today is?"

Yu glanced lazily at the other boy as he processed what today in fact was and then proceeded to sigh. "I thought you wanted this operation to be, oh, what am I looking for here…? Ah, yes. NOT ANNOUNCED TO THE ENTIRETY OF INABA!"

Yosuke cringed. Whether it was because of the volume of Yu's voice that pounded at his eardrums, or he simply realized his mistake, or a mixture of the two, Yu would likely never know.

"Right, sorry. Anyway, I got a bike finally! I'm ready to go to the city when you are. Are you as pumped as I am?"

Yu rolled his eyes, but nevertheless smiled at the enthusiasm. "I don't think anything can match your excitement. Just be careful. That could unnerve people."

"This coming from the guy that seems to just thrive off of frightening others."

Yu smirked. "Guilty as charged."

* * *

Yu seriously thought that school would never end, but then again that could just be because he checked the clock every two seconds expecting it to have moved at least 1 whole minute ahead.

Finally, though, he was following Yosuke on his scooter to the city.

…After returning to their houses to get their jackets after they realized that it was unbearably cold riding a scooter at 30 miles an hour, that is.

When they came to a stop, Yosuke looked to Yu with a grin on his face that had been present all day to the point whereas a couple people felt it necessary to ask if someone had drawn it on.

"I'm _so_ ready for this," he announced, reaching for his helmet.

Yu, spotting potential danger, slapped his hands away.

"Hey, what gives?"

"Moron," Yu muttered. "We can't take them off where someone will see us! Don't you remember how much of a pain it was just finding a secluded place to put the damn things on?"

Yosuke paused as he thought this over, and then sighed when he realized that Yu was right. They were in the middle of the city; there was far too much of a risk that someone could see their ears.

Yu gestured to a nearby tree. "We can hide behind there."

"No," Yosuke protested. "People might think we're planning on bombing them or something. Or worse, they'll think we're in love and that we're doing that whole stereotypical 'kiss in a thought to be secluded area' thing. Or may they'll think we're taking a piss outside since we don't trust public restrooms. This, of course, is a perfect valid concern, but something tells me that they won't enjoy it."

"Well, then what do you suggest we do?" Yu asked, crossing his arms.

Yosuke turned to the throng of people, stroking his chin in a thinking pose. Then, in one swift and surprisingly graceful motion, he grabbed his hat, threw his head back, removed his helmet, and placed his hat on his cranium before bringing it back up to look at Yu with a smug expression on his face.

"That work?" He questioned, glancing about to see if anyone had noticed.

"You looked like an idiot, but surprisingly, yeah, actually." Yu replied. He glanced about to make such no one was watching before mimicking the action. It felt nice to no longer be wearing the helmet, as the interior had grown uncomfortably warm in comparison to his still chilled body. "Alright, what now? Or did you not plan at all, and didn't think we would get farther than this?"

"I-uh…" Yosuke muttered.

"Alright, you didn't plan. Can't say I'm surprised." Yu shook his head, unsure if he should feel exasperated or not. "Beta, you're the one who devised the plan; why didn't you bother to figure out what we would be doing past simply getting there?"

"I wing a lot of things, in case you haven't noticed," Yosuke replied. "This is one of those things."

"I got that," Yu sighed. "Let me guess, you expected me, without informing me, to come up with our game plan."

"Well, you are the Alpha," Yosuke said, subtly informing his friend that he hit the nail on the head.

Yu huffed. He stopped when his wolf ears, even hidden under his hat, managed to pick up some noise that his normal hearing organs were unable to catch. It sounded like a bicycle, accompanied by heavy breathing.

"Beta," Yu muttered slowly. "Do you hear that?"

Yosuke was silent as he listened closely. "Is that… a bicycle?"

"That's what I thought. Did he seriously follow us all this way?"

The bike was now in view, coming towards them with surprising speed. Riding the two wheeled vehicle was Kanji. The younger boy had proclaimed that he would accompany them at lunch, but neither of the older teens believed that he could stay within 10 miles of them.

"He's got some damn impressive stamina," Yosuke noted.

"And even more powerful legs," Yu added. "Look at that speed. Chie's got some of the most impressive legs I've ever seen, but she could not keep up with him if she tried."

Kanji reached them and screeched to a halt. His breathing was ragged, and Yu seriously thought he was going to pass out. "'Twas nothing," he gasped. "Nothing but a light workout."

"You sure?" Yosuke questioned. "You aren't going to vomit all over the pavement?"

"Nah, man," Kanji replied, still struggling to breath properly. "It's all good."

"If you say so…"

"Hey Kanji," Yu said to get the younger boy's attention. "When you're sure you aren't going to pass out, join us in our planning, would you?"

"What are you doing, trying to pick up chicks?"

Yosuke nodded enthusiastically.

"Ah, that's simple. You just find one that might be your type and say hello. Roll with it from there."

Surprise adorned Yosuke's face. "Wow, you're better at this than I am. That's frightening."

"No, not really," Yu informed him.

Yosuke frowned and stuck his tongue out, indignant.

A thought occurred to Kanji, and, with a confused look on his face, he questioned, "By the way, why are you doing this?"

Yu glanced at the younger teen. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you two are both open, yeah, but wouldn't you want to try dating within Inaba? It's a lot easier to see your girlfriend that way."

Yosuke frowned. "Yeah, but every one of the girls that you can date we already know. Every single one of them goes to our school. I've never met a woman in Inaba who was homeschooled."

Kanji's eyebrows shot up in surprise. It's possible that he was berating himself on the inside for not remembering such a simple fact. "Right, forgot about that."

Yu nodded in understanding. "Well, now that you mention it… I was just really going along with Yosuke's idea. I guess I'm here more for the fun of it rather than a serious attempt at getting a girl. I haven't had a chance to interact with a lot of the girls in Inaba, so I should probably start small, huh?"

Kanji dwelled on this for just a moment before seemingly accepting it.

"Oh, so this is just a game to you, is it?" Yosuke asked, a smirk forming on his face. "Okay then, let's up the ante and make it a contest."

His interest piqued, Yu returned the smirk. "Oh? And what kind of contest are you talking about?"

"How about… whoever gets the least amount of numbers from the girls in the area has to buy the other two whatever type of food they want, however expensive it may be, so long as they can agree on single restaurant."

Yu's smirk did not fade. "Oh, you are on! Hey Kanji, you up for Thai?"

Kanji shook his head. "Nah, man. I've heard there's this American restaurant 'round here that has a hamburger with an egg, bacon, and jelly. It sounds nasty, but at the same time, I _really_ want to try it."

Yu cocked his head to the side in thought. "Yeah, I could go for American," he decided. "Yosuke probably wouldn't be able to afford Thai anyway."

"Hey!" Yosuke shouted, offended.

"It's true, man. You did kinda waste all your money on that bike," Kanji reminded him.

"All the more incentive not to lose. And I never said that we would do it directly after the contest. Did either of you even bring more than 4,000 yen?"

"I actually have 40,000 in my wallet right now," Yu said casually, as though that wasn't over 5 times the amount an average Joe would be caught having with him at any point in time.

"What!?"

"Dude, you really should have thought about announcing that. There are thieves all over the place. They'll steal that and more if they think you as a target," Kanji told the wolf boy.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine."

"Dude, screw the contest. Let's just go out and get something to eat now," Yosuke suggested.

"No way, I'm not about to spend my money on your stomachs unless I'm the one to lose the contest!"

Yosuke looked to Kanji and jokingly suggested, "Hey, how 'bout we sabotage his shots at winning?"

Kanji cracked an amused grin.

Yu rolled his eyes. "No interfering with the other contestants, otherwise the saboteur loses out on his free lunch."

"Or dinner," Kanji added.

"Or breakfast, for that matter," Yosuke continued.

"Right, that," Yu said. "Moving on…" he glanced at his phone's clock, seeing it was only a couple seconds away from being 4:30. "We meet back here in exactly one hour, okay?"

The other two males nodded and they separated, Kanji going up the stairs while Yu took the left and Yosuke turned to the right.

Yu looked around and saw two women who appeared to be quite the popular ones. Or maybe they were just dressing flashy because they wanted to be noticed. One or the other, or possibly both.

Thinking he could get at least one of them to like him, he approached. They took notice of him immediately, or, more specifically, his jacket.

"Oh, is that one of those backwater country kids?" The one in an orange top questioned before starting to laugh. "Look at that ridiculous hat!"

Yu blinked, stopping. Not what he had expected.

The other girl giggled alongside her companion. "He's coming over to talk to us, isn't he? Like I'd date him."

His pride slightly wounded already, Yu said, "Actually, I'll have you know that I'm only there until spring, and last year I was sent to Nada and got perfect grades for the whole time that I was there."

The girls' jaws dropped immediately. They glanced to each other and whispered simultaneously, "Whoa. Cute and smart… distance might be an issue, but…" They looked back to him. "Marry me!" They both yelled, jumping at him.

Taken aback, Yu stared at them as they looked up at him hopefully. Cracking a grin, he said, "Well, there are two of you; I don't know if I can… Are you two willing to share me?"

The girls looked to each other once again. The one in the orange shirt seemed prepared to break up their friendship over the idea of sharing such a perfect man, but the other was strangely calm. She looked back to Yu and replied, "It's not like you got anything better to do with your life, living in the middle of bumfuck nowhere. You could easily spare the time."

Yu nodded, all the while trying to suppress a snicker at just how odd this was. "Aren't you the intelligent one?"

The girl nodded enthusiastically, looking back to her friend, who seemed slightly unsure as to what just happened, with a smirk. "We just snagged the perfect guy. With no effort, either!"

The other woman merely nodded, seemingly attempting, and failing miserably, to wrap her head around the situation. There was a ding, and she pulled out her phone. "Crap, we gotta go. My dad's looking for us."

This father must have been in the overprotective category, as the girl then ran off without so much as a goodbye.

"Uh, bye?" Yu muttered.

"Her father's a frightening man when he wants to be. I need to get going too. Uh…" she glanced about, as though searching for something, anything. Then, she grabbed Yu's hand, writing on the back of it a name and a number with a pen that seemed to materialize out of nowhere. "I'll give you Ria's number later, bye!" By the time the sentence was finished, the girl was almost out of sight.

Yu looked down at the number on his hand in disbelief. "They are not going to beat this." He entered in the number on his phone before something could happen to the ink on his skin. "Wonder how the others are doing, though?"

* * *

(With Yosuke)

"I'm telling you, I was not calling you fat! Those jeans make you look really good!"

Yosuke then received a slap to the face.

* * *

(With Kanji)

"I'm not the best at… people."

"I can tell, jackass!"

"I said I was sorry."

"…Prove it."

"W-what?"

"Prove it."

"Uh…"

* * *

(Back with the actual protagonist)

"I'm sure they're fine." He thought for a second. "I wonder if they'll consider this one or two. I only have one right now, but she promised to give me her friend's… Whatever, I'm certainly doing better than them."

Figuring that it would hurt the other girls to go around chatting up other woman (and yes, he was aware that he probably shouldn't even be growing attached to them), he decided that he wanted to get a cup of coffee instead.

Within the shop, he took a seat and told the waitress when she asked what he wanted, "Surprise me."

The woman raised an eyebrow. "So you'd be fine if we made it from sewer water?"

Yu laughed. "So long as it's a surprise. You might want to refrain from that suggestion now that you've gone and mentioned it, though."

The woman smiled and nodded. "Coming right up."

Yu got his coffee and found his bill under the cup. It was something called an Affogato. Not that he had any clue what that was. It was confusing, but he ultimately decided that it wasn't made of sewer water, so he was fine with it. He continued to look at the receipt until something caught his eye, making his eyebrows shoot up.

'Damn, I must be cuter than I actually consider myself,' he thought to himself as he stared at what he guessed was the waitress' phone number.

'Isn't this wrong?' Whitewind asked suddenly.

'Wait, why are you only just now popping in?'

'Fuck you, that's why. Answer the question.'

'What do you think is wrong? The contest, the flirting… what?'

'Everything.'

'Oh, without a doubt.'

Downing the rest of his drink, he slapped down the appropriate amount on the table, taking the receipt with him as proof.

Once again, his thoughts wandered to the other males.

* * *

(With Yosuke)

"Yeah, I work at Junes. But I do have immense respect for people that can hold their own against big name companies."

"Really? Aww, that's nice to hear."

Yosuke smirked.

* * *

(With Kanji)

Kanji absentmindedly ate away at an ice cream cone, listening to the woman talk about any large number of topics that crossed her mind.

He was unsure of if she would ever let him go at this rate.

* * *

Yu wandered about without a care in the world, glancing here and there in a vain attempt to find something of interest to fill the rest of his time. There was still a solid 20 minutes left when he stumbled upon a cat, seemingly a stray, judging from the state of its fur.

He approached it cautiously and it walked right up to him, purring and rubbing against his legs.

Smiling, he sat down, crossing his legs, and watched it jump into his lap, perfectly fitting in the space.

'This day is going well,' Yu thought as he sat back and barely managed to catch himself in time when he realized there wasn't a wall behind him.

'Right, because breaking the hearts of three girls is totally a good day.'

'Shut up, I don't intend to harm any of them. I simply won't communicate with the waitress, after all I didn't intentionally flirt with her, and I'll keep in contact with the two city girls.'

'If you say so.'

Ten minutes later, a small group of friends took interest in the kitten. As it turned out, it was _his_ group of friends.

"Yu-kun, when did you get a cat?" Yukiko questioned, startling Yu and making the cat meow in annoyance because of the sudden jolt.

"Y-Yukiko-chan… When did you get here?" Yu asked, incredulous.

"What, no hello to me?" Chie muttered, acting as though offended.

"Chie-chan, you too? Why are you guys here?"

Chie held up a shopping bag, telling him, "We're shopping. What are you doing here, with a cat, no less? I feel you're more of a dog person."

"I am," Yu replied. "I'm just passing the time while I wait for Yosuke and Kanji to get back."

"Oh? What are they doing?" Yukiko asked.

"They're having a contest."

"Uh, could you elaborate a bit?" Chie requested.

"Getting the phone numbers of a bunch of girls."

Both females naturally looked offended at the idea.

"We are not toys, Yu-kun," Chie informed him.

"And I'm very aware of that. But think about it this way: Kanji won't have the guts to hurt any poor girl he manages to hit up, and Yosuke is so pathetic that he couldn't manage to get a girl's number if he got her wasted first. I'm also technically a part of this contest, but as you can see, I've kinda given up after I managed to woo two friends and a waitress, the latter of which I was not aiming for in the slightest."

Yu guessed that he rambled too fast, as both girls looked at him blankly for several seconds in a desperate attempt at catching up. Eventually, Chie said, "Right, sure… Uh, what did you say? I missed 90% of that."

Yu laughed. "It's alright, I'm just rambling." He indicated to the cat. "You want to say hello to Mr. Stray here?"

Chie crouched and stroked the cat's head. It meowed and accepted the love.

"How do you know it's a he?" Yukiko asked.

Yu frowned. "That's… a good question, actually." Gingerly, he grabbed the feline and held it up, ignoring the annoyed noise that came a second later. "It's a guy," he answered, pausing for a second before adding in, "Neutered."

Carefully, he placed the cat, which was still meowing indignantly, back in his lap.

Looking back up at the two females who were busy showing their affection to the cat, Yu asked, "So, you guys want to wait with me until Yosuke and Kanji can get back?"

Chie shrugged. "I got nothing better to do with my life." She glanced at Yukiko. "What about you?"

"I don't see why not. But can we not sit on the ground?"

"Wimp," Yu accused playfully before picking up the cat and moving to a nearby bench.

For several minutes, the three friends merely talked, playing happily with the feline. Eventually, Kanji appeared, looking somewhere between annoyed and quite happy. Seeing as these were almost exact opposites, Yu found himself somewhat confused.

"Hey Kanji-kun," he called out to get the other boy's attention when he didn't immediately spot the older teens. "What's up? You seem kinda torn."

"You can tell?" Kanji asked, his attention already primarily focused on the fluffy animal in Yu's lap.

"Yeah, I can. What happened?"

"Well, I think I didn't lose."

There was brief pause, and so Yu tried to get him to elaborate. "How so?"

"Oh, well, I accidently did something to get this one chick mad at me, though I'm not exactly sure what. So, she told me to prove that I felt bad, and I ended up buying her ice cream."

"And that elects annoyance because…?"

"I'm broke now."

"Geez, how much was that ice cream?" Yukiko questioned, shocked.

"Oh, you do not want to know. On the plus side, it was _damn_ good."

"There you go, looking on the bright side!" Chie congratulated.

"Thanks?"

"Did you at least get her number?" Yu asked.

Kanji brightened somewhat. "Surprisingly, yes. I think she only wants me around so I can buy her food, but at least it's hopefully better than what Yosuke-senpai managed. By the way, speaking of numbers, what did you manage?"

"Well, right off the bat I managed to woo two girls and at that point I figured I would be able to beat you and/or Yosuke, so I decided against trying to get anyone else's. Then I went to get coffee and apparently I accidently flirted with a waitress, as on the back of my bill she gave me her number."

Kanji's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Impressive. I suppose I shouldn't be shocked, seeing as you are the popular one."

"Damn straight." Yu scooted to the side some, gesturing for Chie to do the same and provide Kanji enough space to sit.

"So, you going to text any of them?" Chie asked.

"Hm? Yeah, I guess I should." Yu pulled out his phone, looking for the number he entered in earlier. He eventually found the name he was searching for: Katsumi. He shot her a quick text, explaining that he was the boy they had met earlier, as well as his name.

Many a minute passed, and finally Yu pulled out his phone again, this time texting Yosuke, 'Yo, get your ass over here now if you don't want to be disqualified.'

The reply was a panicked 'no dude can't do that man'

Yu rolled his eyes at his terrible lack of punctuation and grammar skills and told him 'Then hurry it up!'

Soon enough, Yosuke jogged up to them, completely out of breath. "Please don't tell me I was disqualified."

"Nah, you're fine," Yu informed him. "You got back, uh… point two seconds before I would have eliminated you from the competition."

"Fuck you," Yosuke replied, knowing full well that he was lying through his teeth.

"Same to you buddy," Yu smiled. "So how'd you do?"

Yosuke hung his head. "I got nothing. You pulled me away from my only chance."

"Well, it's a solid 2 minutes after the hour allotted, so be glad I gave you as long as I did."

"I almost had her, too," Yosuke said with a sigh.

"Hey Kanji-kun, up top! Looks like we're getting eggs in burgers, hopefully within the month!"

The ensuing high five only served to sour Yosuke's mood all the more.

Chie started to laugh at the misfortune that had saddened her friend. Just like the high five, this did not do anything particularly helpful for the poor boy.

"I hate you all," Yosuke announced.

"You've kinda already informed us of that in the form of a 'fuck you'," Yu told him.

Yosuke snarled.

"Alright, in an effort to not let Yosuke have a chance to rip off our heads, shall we return to Inaba?" Yukiko asked, clapping her hands together to get everyone's attention.

Yu looked down at the purring bundle of love in his lap. "But what about this guy?"

"Can't you just leave him?" Chie asked.

"Not a chance!" Yu shouted, offended.

The cat looked at Chie and meowed.

"You don't want to be left alone?" She asked, apparently having a base understanding of the cat's meaning. The feline meowed again, and Chie suddenly looked guilty. "Someone needs to adopt him," she said firmly.

"Well, since you're the one who suggested it, you want to take him?" Yu asked.

"I'm seriously afraid of how my dog would react, though. He'd probably think the poor guy's a chew toy."

The cat meowed, and now that Yu was listening carefully, he somewhat got what he was saying, that being 'Yeah, no, I don't want that.'

"Can I take him?" Kanji asked.

Yu looked to him briefly before turning the cat. "How about it? You want to stay with Kanji-kun?"

The cat looked to said boy and meowed happily, standing and padding over Chie and making himself at home on the younger teen's lap.

"I'll assume that's a yes," Yukiko said with a smile, watching Kanji gingerly pick up and cuddle the creature.

The girls soon departed for the train station, with the boys returning to their vehicles soon after. Kanji, at no point in time, stopped fawning over his new pet.

The ride home was slow and annoying, as Kanji was deathly scared of frightening the cat, of which was now resting in the basket at the front of the bike, looking at the quickly passing sights with glee. Eventually, though, they got back to Inaba.

After having his dinner, Yu decided that for tonight's money making job, he would go to the hospital. Along the way, he got a reply from Katsumi.

'sry, Rias dad almst caut me.'

Yu sighed when he realized he likely would have to be interpreting a lot of what they were saying, something he strangely enough rarely had to deal with when texting his friends. The sad thing was that he was decently sure that almost and caught didn't actually have a proper shorthand version. Nevertheless, he replied, 'Don't worry about it.'

'its good. ill send Ria ur # l8r.'

'Alright. I have to work now, talk to you later!'

Katsumi told him goodbye, and he entered the hospital.

While he was clocking in, one of the women from the receptionist's desk waved him over. "There's a girl that's going to be starting today. Would you mind taking a portion of your shift to show her everything?"

Yu nodded. "Sure. Where's she stationed?"

"She'll be taking the upper floors, and you'll be doing the lower floors from now on."

Yu smiled. "Good. It was starting to feel overwhelming cleaning basically the whole place myself."

"Yu-kun!" Exclaimed a familiar voice.

Yu turned to look at the person and found that it was Yukiko, apparently having already decided to do the job he had mentioned to her.

"Yukiko-chan, you actually got the job?"

"It pays better than the translating," she replied with a shrug.

Yu thought about this for a couple seconds before coming to the conclusion that she was right. "True that. Come now, I will show you everything that you are to be doing."

Sadly, after Yu was done showing his friend around the hospital, the rest of the night was quite uneventful. He didn't even get to say goodbye to Yukiko as she got off a bit earlier than him, at which point she ran home in an attempt to avoid the small possibility that her parents would go into her room and discover that she was gone.

* * *

 **I actually vaguely remember looking up top schools in Japan to come up with the name Nada. Also, I remember looking up coffee types to give Yu his surprise coffee. Don't know why I went through the effort, but I think it was fun at the time. I also have a list of text abbreviations bookmarked because I didn't make them stay too long, but hot damn, I wanted them to have some fucking life.**

 **My reasoning for Yu actually talking to the girls and everything was actually because I wanted to give that feeling that Yu has a bit of a life outside of his core social link circle. Does it work? I don't know, maybe it would if I bothered to stick with it for a while longer than I did.**

 **By the way, if anyone that's seriously strong willed enough to read my A/Ns has some true, legitimate facts on Rise's career, please tell me. Xanothos has informed me that Rise seems to be a bit of a hodgepodge of a singer, a dancer, a model, an actor, that sort of thing, but it's more speculation than anything given that most of our evidence is that she actually sings, actually dances, and in the Animation, one of the Shadows is wearing... a soccer uniform. It's weird, so if anyone seriously understands Japanese idols, like, fucking shout... _please_. I am seriously just running with Xano's idea because I don't have a clue, so... any well and true Japanese/Japanese freaks out there?**


End file.
